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MANUAL 



OF THE 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, 



FOR CLASSES AND PRIVATE READING. 



BY 

STEPHEN G. BULFLNCH, D. D. 



BOSTON: 

"WILLIAM! V. SPENCER, 

203 Washington Street, 

1866. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

Stephen G. Bulfixch, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



3 3 % 3 



CD 

£35tereoryped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 






No. 4 Spring Lane. 



TO 



ANDREW P. PEABODY, D.D.,LL.D., 

PLU1IMER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS _ 

IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 



iOjis SUarfc, 

WHOSE PREPARATION HE HAS ENCOURAGED, 

IS D ED ICA TED, 

IN TOKEN OF RESPECT AND FRIENDSHIP, 

BY THE AUTHOR. 

Cambridge, May, 1866. 



PKEF ACE. 



It has been thought that, at the present time, when 
many reject altogether the claims of Christianity, and 
many who love and reverence it have very indefinite 
ideas regarding the authority with which it comes to 
us, a brief statement of the leading evidences of 
its divine origin might be acceptable and useful, not 
only to the private inquirer, but as a manual for 
public seminaries, and advanced classes in Sunday 
schools. In preparing this little work, the evidences 
have been carefully reexamined, in the light of recent 
investigations in natural science and in theology. The 
book will be found to contain a brief examination of 
the principal theories that have been advanced, in 
Germany and elsewhere, for the explanation of the 
New Testament miracles, and of the doubts which 
have been suggested with regard to the authenticity 



VI PREFACE. 

of the Gospels. For some further remarks upon this 
branch of his subject, the author would refer to his arti- 
cles on the Tubingen school, in the Monthly Religious 
Magazine for January, February, and May of the 
present year. He is under obligation to several 
gentlemen who have furnished facilities for his work, 
and especially to President Hopkins, of Williams 
College, for permission to make use of his valuable 
"Lowell Lectures." From these he has derived im- 
portant aid, particularly in the part entitled " The 
Christian System." 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

Page 

Section 1. Revelation 1 

" 2. Miracle ' 3 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 

Section 3. Christianity at First View 8 

" 4. Comparison with other Religions, continued 10 

" 5. Christianity in Harmony with Nature 13 

" 6. Christianity adapted to Man 15 

" 7. The Morality of Christianity 17 

THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Section 8. Character of Jesus 22 

" 9. Position, Claims, and Success of Jesua 25 

" 10. Death and Resurrection of Jesua. . 29 

INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Section 11. Proof from Institutions 33 

EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 

I. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

Section 12. Third and Fourth Centuries 38 

" 13. First and Second Centuries 41 

u 14. Heretical Writers .......45 

" 15. Jewish and Heathen Writers. Versions. Coins. ... 49 

(vii) 



viil CONTENTS. 

II. INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

Page 

Section 16. Language, Geographical Accuracy, &c. ...... 53 

" 17. Honesty and Consistency. Differences 57 

" 18. Undesigned Coincidences CO 

" 19. Agreement of Luke's Writings with the Epistles. ... 03 

" 20. Writings of the Apostle John 66 

" 21. Apocrypha of the New Testament. ....... 70 

" 22. Result of our Inquiries 75 

MODERN SPECULATIONS. 

Section 23. Theories that suppose the Gospel Narratives correct. . . 79 

" 24. Theories supposing Fraud 82 

" 25. The Mythical Theory 85 

THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

Section 26. General View 91 

« 27. Difficulties 93 

" 28. Evidence, External and Internal 97 

" 29. Old Testament Prophecy 104 

" 30. The Jewish Revelation prophetic of the Christian. . • . 103 

«• 31. Individual Prophecies of the Old Testament 113 



Section 32. New Testament Prophecy, and subsequent History of the 

Jews 119 

" 33. Martyrdoms 123 

" 34. Conclusion. . 129 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION 133 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

Section 1. Revelation. 

The knowledge which men possess with regard to 
religious subjects, is, generally speaking, traditional; 
that is, derived from those who went before them. But 
if we go farther back, and seek for the original sources 
of religious knowledge, there are only three that occur 
to us as conceivable. Religious ideas may be innate 
within the mind ; they may be derived from the con- 
templation of nature; or they may be received from 
revelation. 

Our innate ideas, or intuitive convictions, give evi- 
dence of the distinction between right and wrong-, of the 
existence of some superior Power, and of our destiny to 
live hereafter. 

Nature, or the order of God's works, confirms these 
truths, and assures us of the Unity, Benevolence, and 
other attributes of our Creator. 

But notwithstanding these means of knowledge, men 
in various ages have fallen into most dangerous errors 



2 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

with regard to religion and morality. They have wor- 
shipped many gods, instead of one, and have supposed 
these beings to be limited in power and knowledge, 
stained with the grossest crimes, and only to be concil- 
iated by the most degrading and unnatural services. 
From such errors great corruption and misery have 
proceeded. 

Among the ancient heathen, morality became en- 
tirely separated from religion. The customs of society 
were debased by ferocity and licentiousness : witness 
the gladiatorial combats, and the open practice of im- 
purities which cannot now even be named. Human 
sacrifices were sometimes offered, even in the most pol- 
ished ages of Greece and Koine, and divine honors were 
paid to men and women of the most abandoned char- 
acter. 

Even now, in the most enlightened countries, those 
who reject Christianity are not agreed respecting some 
of the most important truths of what is called Natural 
Eeligion. Some deny the reality of a future life, and 
some the existence of a personal God. 

Our innate ideas, and the contemplation of nature, 
are not sufficient, then, to impart the knowledge of re- 
ligious truth. There appears, therefore, a probability 
that He who made us would give us further guidance on 
subjects of such importance. He. created the human 
race for virtue and happiness ; would he not interpose 
to rescue them when wandering in sin and misery ? He 
imparted to them religious capacities and wants ; would 
he not probably furnish the means for their gratifica- 
tion ? 

It may be added, that only by revelation could human 



INTRODUCTORY. 3 

beings be assured of any personal interest felt in them 
bv their Creator ; the order of nature testifying only to 
his care for his creatures generally, or in masses. The 
ideas of God as hearing prayer, and as being ready to 
forgive and bless the individual worshipper, though they 
might be suggested by innate feeling, could be confirmed 
only by revelation. 

The probability of a revelation having been made is 
confirmed by the very general belief of mankind that 
such has been the case; — a belief derived, probably, 
among heathen nations, from some dim tradition of a 
primitive divine communication. 

Section 2. Miracle. 

A miracle is an occurrence produced by superhuman 
power, in a manner different from the common course of 
nature. 

Revelation, being distinguished from the teaching of 
nature, is necessarily miraculous. It may or may not 
be accompanied by outward miracles ; but if it is ex- 
traordinary, — occurring once only, or at intervals in 
the history of the world, — it is itself a miracle, by the 
definition given above. It would be as truly a miracle 
for God to interfere with the common laws of mind as 
with those of matter. To deny, then, the possibility of 
miracle is to deny the possibility that God should ever 
make a revelation to his creatures. 

It is true that the order of nature is marked by beau- 
tiful consistency and uniformity ; and no departure from 
it can be supposed to have taken place, but for the most 
important reasons. Yet miracles are not incredible, be- 
cause, — 



4 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

1. The power of God to produce them is infinite. 

2. The communication of religious knowledge, in- 
volving the principles by which life is to be guided, and 
happiness secured, here and hereafter, is an object of 
such high importance, that it seems worthy of miracu- 
lous intervention. 

3. Science testifies that miracles have been performed. 
The creation was a miracle, or rather a succession of 
miracles. The world itself bears witness to the action 
of its Author, at some former time or times, in a man- 
ner different from his usual action by what are called the 
laws of nature. Geology teaches that the earth, for a 
long succession of ages, was in a condition in which life 
neither did nor could exist. It testifies, also, that dif- 
ferent forms of vegetable and animal life were produced 
at successive periods, as the earth was fitted to receive 
them. In every such production the action of the 
Almighty was different from the common course of na- 
ture. That course is to preserve and to propagate ; the 
action in these instances was to create. These, there- 
fore, were miracles. 

Some have imagined that the existing variety of ani- 
mal and vegetable life was the result of gradual devel- 
opment of complicated forms from those more simple. 
If this were true, the number of miracles would be less, 
but the fact of miraculous creation must still be ad- 
mitted, to account for the existence of those simple 
forms. 

Even if this theory were maintained to the extrava- 
gant extent of supposing all forms of life to have spruno- 
from "monads," or microscopic insects, — these to have 
been produced by spontaneous generation, — and, finally, 



INTRODUCTORY. 5 

the world itself, and the whole solar system, to have re- 
sulted from a rotatory motion in a mass of " nebulous " 
or chaotic matter, — still the action of almighty power 
in giving that first impulse must be recognized as a 
miracle. All that would be gained by so wild a con- 
jecture would be to reduce the miracles of creation to 
one ; and that one, being entirely exceptional, would be 
more directly contrary to the majestic order and gradual 
progress which the course of nature exhibits, than would 
a series of creative touches from the divine hand. 

Miracles, then, have taken place in creation. It is 
not incredible, therefore, that they have occurred since. 
If God thus interposed, at successive periods, to bring 
into being the various forms of vegetable, animal, and 
human life, he may have interposed, at successive peri- 
ods since, to communicate his will to his human off- 
spring. This, as we believe, he did, in the primitive, 
the Jewish, and the Christian revelations. 

4. 3.1iracles may be consistent with laws of nature 
unknown to us. 

A bird which has always lived in a forest, and has 
never seen a human being, finds, on returning to seek 
its nest at night, that the tree which bore it is prostrate, 
although there has been no storm. This is a miracle to 
the bird ; it is out of the course of nature to which the 
bird has been accustomed. To us it is no miracle ; it is 
simply that a settler has cut down the tree. The inter- 
ference, then, of a superior being, or order of beings, 
with an inferior, may produce a miracle to the latter ; 
yet it may be perfectly consistent with the laws of the 
superior being's nature. 

To take another illustration : The sun rises every 
1* 



6 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

clay, the comet becomes visible perhaps once in a thou- 
sand years ; yet the appearance of the comet is in 
accordance with the laws of nature as truly as the 
rising of the sun. So the manifestation, at long in- 
tervals, of creative power in geologic epochs, or of 
spiritually renewing and wonder-working power in suc- 
cessive revelations, may be in conformity to laws as 
firmlv established and as sublime as that of gravitation. 

It has been contended that all human experience tes- 
tifies against miracles. Our individual experience can 
count for very little, from the limited range of our ob- 
servation ; and the experience of ages past is known to 
us only by the testimony of those who then lived. Some 
of these — the sacred writers — expressly declare that 
miracles took place. Others are silent respecting them ; 
but no one directly contradicts, from his own knowledge, 
the assertion of the sacred writers. Here, then, is only 
testimony against testimony ; nay, testimony which is 
merely neutral against that which is positive. 

Miracles, however, are confessedly events of very rare 
occurrence. We know of but two purposes to which 
they are applied — creation and revelation. The reason 
is obvious : every other purpose of divine Providence 
is best accomplished by the common order of the uni- 
verse, but these two imply miracle in their very nature. 
To command our belief, miracles must meet the follow- 
ing conditions : — 

1. They must be, in themselves, worthy of a divine 
origin. The miracles wrought by the Savior were 
dignified, and, in general, directly beneficent in their 
character. 

2. The revelation they are wrought to establish must 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 

be worthy of our reception. Xo amount of alleged 
miraculous evidence could sustain doctrines dishonorable 
to God, or inconsistent with pure morality. 

3. They must be proved by satisfactory evidence; 
such, for example, as the testimony of several intelligent 
eye-witnesses, given independently of each other, and 
under circumstances which showed that they had neither 
been bribed nor deluded. 

The Christian religion expressly claims to have been 
accompanied by miracles. (Mark xvi. 17, 20; John 
x. 25, 37, 38; Acts ii. 22, 32.) "We cannot consist- 
ently receive it as true, and yet reject its claims in this 
important particular. 

Even if Christianity should be received as our o-uide, 
on account of the self-evident truth of its instructions, 
still its miracles would not be superfluous. They would 
mark it as being not a discovery of man, but a revela- 
tion from God, possessing authority that entitles it to 
obedience, and expressing the love of the Creator, as a 
personal message from a father expresses his love to his 
children. 

The question, however, most suitable for the inquirer 
into the truth of Christianity, is not whether it was 
best that God should reveal his will miraculously, but 
whether he has actually done so. 



8 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 

Section 3. Christianity at First View. 

The inquiry now presents itself, Is the Christian re- 
ligion worthy of the divine origin it claims? Some 
facts respecting it meet us at the first glance. 

1. It is the religion of the most enlightened portion 
of the world. Christianity and civilization go together ; 
and the freest and most advanced countries are those in 
which this religion is held in its purest form. Where 
the gospel has prevailed, science and art have flour- 
ished, and institutions of learning and charity have been 
maintained, which before its introduction were unknown. 

2. The condition of woman has been more elevated 
and happy in Christian lands than in others. In 
Turkey, woman is a prisoner; in India, a slave and 
a victim. 

3. The greatest men, in intellectual and moral en- 
dowments, have usually been among the foremost in 
their acknowledgment of Christianity ; and, generally 
speaking, the most honest men, the most useful citi- 
zens, the firmest friends, and the most liberal benefac- 
tors, have been decided Christians. 

4. The excellence of Christianity has been admitted 
by many even of those who did not believe in its author- 
ity ; and those sceptics who have led virtuous lives have 
generally been those who had been brought up in Chris- 
tian homes. 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 9 

5. While systems of human philosophy have been 
improved through successive generations after the death 
of their founders, Christianity stands in its best form as 
displayed in its original documents. Endeavors to im- 
prove it have merely resulted in corrupting it ; and 
attempts to reform it find success only as they bring it 
back to " the simplicity that is in Christ." 

6. When we look at the religion itself, we perceive 
that it gives the most exalted ideas of God, — as One, 
Infinite, and Eternal ; as Holy, Just, and Merciful. 

7. It gives, also, the most correct ideas of man, — 
as possessed of great capacities and powers, and destined 
for noble purposes ; but as led away by sin, and needing 
repentance and amendment. 

8. It gives rational and elevated ideas of human 
duty, as comprised in self-control, usefulness, and piety. 
Its morality is not only elevated, but strict, guarding 
thought as well as action. 

9. It gives a lofty view of man's final destiny, repre- 
senting him as designed by his Maker for immortal life 
and happiness. 

10. The Christian religion, and that alone, exhibits 
a fitness to become universal. Other systems are lim- 
ited by their peculiarities to the region of their birth. 
Mohammedanism insists on various ablutions, healthful 
and agreeable in warm countries, but not adapted to 
colder regions. Judaism, though divine in its origin, 
was not designed for universal acceptance until com- 
pleted by Christianity. It required all males to present 
themselves three times a year at the Temple, which was 
the only one permitted to be built. This, and numer- 
ous other restrictions, marked it as a national religion. 



10 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

(Exodus xxiii. 17; Deut. xii. 13, 14.) But Chris- 
tianity gives the command, "Preach to every creature" 
(Mark xvi. 15), and its character and institutions are 
consistent with that command. Christ came to save his 
people, not from the Roman yoke, which would have 
been a local and temporary object, but " from their 
sins," an object of universal character. (Matt. i. 21.) 

Section 4. Comparison with other Eeligions, 

continued. 

The other religions in the world are Judaism, Moham- 
medanism, Buddhism, Heathenism in its various forms, 
and Deism. 

Judaism, the religion of the Old Testament, was 
given as preparatory to Christianity ; is acknowledged 
by it as of divine origin, and is, to a great extent, in- 
cluded in it. It is not complete in itself. (Heb. xi. 
39, 40.) It does not, as distinctly as Christianity, 
represent the Supreme Being as the impartial Father 
of all mankind ; does not as strongly impress the obli- 
gation of some duties, — that of mercy, for instance; 
and does not as clearly teach the doctrine of a future 
life. 

The sublimity of the Christian ideas of God is more 
observable when contrasted with the narrow spirit of 
the Jews near the period at which Jesus lived. The 
author of the Second Book of Esdras, in the Apocrypha, 
apparently a half Christianized Jew, uses the follow- 
ing language : " Lord, thou madst the world for our 
sakes. As for the other people, which also come of 
Adam, thou hast said that they are nothing." (2 Esdras 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 11 

vi. 55, 56.) Contrast with this the Savior's recog- 
nition of the brotherhood of all mankind. (Matt. v. 
43-45 ; Luke x. 27-37 ; John x. 16.) 

Mohammedanism is only a corruption of Judaism 
and Christianity. With many excellent precepts, de- 
rived from these, it combines many harsh commands 
and formal observances. Contrary to the pure and 
peaceful character of Christianity, it places little re- 
straint on sensuality, and encourages the stern, warlike, 
and ambitious spirit, rather than the gentle and for- 
giving. Its inferiority is the more marked, as, coming 
later than Christianity, it might have been expected to 
have improved upon it. 

The corrupted form of Christianity called Mormon- 
ism strongly resembles Mohammedanism in the particu- 
lars just mentioned, and affords a striking illustration of 
the excellence of Christianity, by the miserable failure 
of the attempt to improve it. 

Buddhism may be properly distinguished from other 
forms of heathenism, both on account of its extensive 
prevalence, and as being more properly atheistic than 
polytheistic. It denies the existence of an eternal God, 
gives imperfect rules of human duty, and makes the 
highest happiness consist in the extinction of our per- 
sonal beino;. 

Heathenism, in all its forms, is full of ideas and prac- 
tices dishonorable to God and deoradino; to man. 

In ancient heathen nations there were great philoso- 
phers who rose above their religion and their age, and 
taught many exalted lessons of virtue ; but the)' did not 
derive the sanction for it from the hope or fear of a 
future life. Plato, in one remarkable passage of the 



12 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Phaedon, describes Socrates as speaking as a Christian 
might speak ; but the instance is a solitary one. Gen- 
erally, the heathen writers speak of the future life in 
uncertain language, or describe it in an unattractive 
aspect ; and seldom appeal to considerations connected 
with it, to enforce the obligations of morality. 

Neither Mohammedanism, Buddhism, nor any form 
of heathenism, has any claim to rest on the evidence of 
miracles. Mohammed disclaimed miracles as proofs of 
his system, telling his followers that the Koran itself 
was a miracle. There are some miraculous stories told 
respecting him, as that of his night journey to heaven 
on the horse Alborak ; but they rest only on his own 
word, not having been witnessed by any other person. 

The wonders of Brahminism, and those of ancient 
heathenism, are alleged to have taken place in far dis- 
tant ages, before the rise of authentic history. They 
rest on the word of poets, not of historians. 

If Deism be proposed to take the place of Christian- 
ity, under the more specious name of Theism, or the 
Religion of Nature, it may be observed that the doc- 
trines usually supposed to constitute this system are 
mostly derived from the gospel. The modern Deist, 
born of Christian parents, and subjected in youth and 
manhood to the influences of Christian instruction and 
society, combines the best ideas he has received, and ex- 
cluding from his spiritual temple the foundation of faith 
in Christ, calls the beautiful but now baseless structure 
the Religion of Nature. Men are so accustomed to the 
thought of God's unity, infinity, and goodness, and to 
the doctrine of a future life, that they forget how much 
they are indebted, even for these truths, to the Bible. 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. ' 13 

And notwithstanding the advantage of Christ's teaching, 
those who discard his authority are not agreed with 
regard to many of the most important subjects, such 
even as the existence of a personal God as distinct from 
nature, and the hope of a future life to the individual as 
distinct from the continued existence of the race to 
which he belongs. 

Section 5. Christianity in Harmony with 

Nature. 

Among the works of God a degree of harmony may 
justly be expected, either in resemblance or in adapta- 
tion to each other. This harmony exists between nature 
and Christianity. 

Christianity coincides with the highest teachings of 
natural religion, in the exalted view it gives of the 
divine nature and attributes. And this harmony is the 
more apparent as the teachings of nature have been in- 
terpreted by science, proving the immense extent of cre- 
ation, and that all portions of it are under the control of 
the same grand system of laws. These discoveries cor- 
respond to what the Bible taught long before, of the 
unity of God, and his unbounded power, wisdom, and 
love. 

God's moral government, as displayed by Christian- 
ity, is analogous to his government over outward nature. 
The power of gravitation acts not only on large bodies, 
but on small ; not only on masses, but on atoms. So 
in God's moral government, the laws of right and wrong 
are applicable to the least of our actions as to the great- 
est ; and Christ tells us, "Every idle word that men 
2 



14 ♦ EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of 
judgment." (Matt. xii. 36.) 

Nature and Christianity alike teach most clearly what 
is of practical importance, leaving theoretical truth for 
subsequent discovery. Thus natural instinct prompts to 
use the day for labor and the night for rest ; but men 
did not discover for ages what it was that produced this 
interchange of light and darkness. So Christianity 
teaches the great practical doctrine of a future state ; 
but how that state will be constituted is not explained. 
Mohammedanism, on the contrary, enters into a minute, 
and often an absurd, description of the realms of bliss 
and of woe. 

The operation of Christianity upon the heart of man, 
and upon the institutions of society, is generally grad- 
ual, like the changes produced in nature. "First the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
(Mark iv. 28.) In its remedial character it is anal- 
ogous to other remedies, often, like them, requiring of 
its patients self-restraint and self-denial. 

In its mediatorial character, too, it is analogous to 
nature. To save another from evil, it is necessary that 
we take some labor or pain upon ourselves. The sick 
child is saved by the sleepless care of the mother ; the 
endangered country by its soldiers, faithful unto death ; 
the neglected prisoners by the self-sacrifice of the philan- 
thropist. The death of Christ for our salvation is, then, 
in harmonv with a universal law. 

The agreement of Christianity with nature has been 
made use of as an argument against its claims. It is 
said by some that the teachings of Christ are, in what is 
most important, only repetitions of moral and religious 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 15 

lessons that had been oiven before. Efforts have been 
made to prove this with respect to the Lord's Prayer 
(Matt. vi. 9) and the Golden Eule. (Matt. vii. 12.) 
The reply is, that, of course, if the principles taught by 
Christ were eternal truth, they could not be new; if 
they were truth of the highest importance, God would 
not have left the world for ages entirely without them. 
Many of the teachings of Jesus, therefore, had very 
probably been anticipated by those before his time. 
But he came, not so much to declare what was entirely 
new, as to give the most important religious and moral 
truth to mankind, in a connected form, free from human 
error, and with the authoritative sanction of a revela- 
tion ; and by his example, his death and resurrection, 
to illustrate the whole system, and make it effectual for 
the salvation of mankind. 



Section 6. Christianity adapted to Man. 

The harmonv of the Christian religion with the svs- 
tern of divine government manifested in nature may be 
further seen in its adaptation to the various powers and 
capacities of man. 

It is adapted to the intellect and the imagination ; for 
it presents to the former the loftiest themes of con- 
templation, and kindles the latter by its representations 
of beauty and grandeur. Xot to speak at present of 
the lofty poetry of the Old Testament, it is sufficient to 
refer to the parables of the Good Samaritan (Luke x.) 
and the Prodigal Son (Luke xv.) ; to the discourse 
with the woman of Samaria (John iv.), to the portrait- 
ure of Charity (1 Cor. xiii.), and the chapter on the 



16 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

resurrection (1 Cor. xv.), with the description of the 
final judgment. (Eev. xx. 11, 12.) 

It is adapted to the conscience and the will ; for it 
holds before the mind the claims of duty, not on the 
ground of expediency alone, but on that of God's ap- 
pointment. It declares the way of virtue to be the way 
even of earthly happiness, pointing out the rewards 
which attend it, and ascribing them to the wise provi- 
dence of God. (Matt. v. ; 1 Tim. iv. 8.) It de- 
nounces, in his name, corresponding penalties against 
transgression. (Matt. v. 21-26.) Still more, it assures 
us that the reward of virtue and the penalty of guilt will 
be extended beyond this world, teaching us to expect 
a righteous judgment. (Matt. xxv. ; Rom. ii. 5-10.) 
By the strictness of its moral requirements, it excites 
the conscience, alarming us with a view of our condition 
in the sight of God. (Eom. hi. 19, 20, 23.) Yet it 
encourages us with the hope of pardon for the past, and 
divine assistance for the future. (Luke xi. 13 ; xviii. 
13, 14; 1 Johni. 9.) 

It is adapted to the affections : for it places before us 
the highest object to which they can be directed — the 
infinitely good and holy Being, whom it presents to us 
as "our Father in heaven." (Matt. vi. 9: xxii. 37; 
1 John iv. 8.) It displays the resemblance of his per- 
fections in a human form in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
whose self-sacrificino; labors and sufferings for our sake, 
endured with unexampled patience, dignity, and devo- 
tion to God, have proved the most effectual means to 
touch the heart. (John xii. 32 ; Heb. i. 3 ; ii. 10.) 
And it encourages the domestic and social affections, 
making love its great principle of action, and enforcing 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 17 

it by the example of the Savior. (Matt. xxii. 35—40 ; 
John XT. 12 ; Bom. xiii. 10 ; 1 John iv. 20, 21.) 



Section 7. The Moeaeity oe Cheistiaxttt. 

By its adaptation to the conscience, the affections, 
and the will, Christianity commends and enforces its 
moral instructions. TTe have next to observe what is 
the character of these. 

They comprise, in the first place, the law of right, 
the great principles of justice, purity, and benevolence. 
These, which wise men had in part discerned, are more 
fully given in the Old Testament, but in their perfec- 
tion only by the Savior. (Exodus xx. : Matt. v. 17, 
1^ ; Eom. ii. 14.) The various manifestations of God's 
law. in nature, in the Old Testament and in the Xew, 
are thus harmonious. 

The Christian law of morality comprises also some 
rules to which neither heathen wisdom nor Jewish in- 
spiration had attained. These are sometimes dire 
given, as the limitation of anger (Matt. v. 21, 22 . 
and of divor: [att. v. 31 : Mark x. 2-9) : and 

sometimes they are clearly implied : as polygamy and 
suicide, though nowhere directlv forbidden, are evi- 
dently contrary, the one to the Christian duty of purity, 
the other to that of patient and faithful continuance in 
the service of God. 

The Christian law is distinguished by the restraint 
which it places upon the propensities and passions. It 
forbids the ex of malevolent feelings. Eevex.:. 

which among the heathen was regarded as the mark of 
a noble mind, is prohibited by Chiistianity. (Rom. xii. 
2* 



18 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

19, 20.) Avarice, pride, vanity, and sensuality are 
alike forbidden. (Luke xii. 15; 1 John ii. 16.) 

At the same time it avoids the extreme into which 
other systems have fallen, which have attempted to 
restrain the passions — that of a gloomy asceticism. 
(Matt. xi. 19 ; 1 Tim. iv. 4.) 

Among the virtues there are some which have at- 
tracted the admiration of mankind in every age, and 
which were held in high honor alike by Jews and hea- 
then at the time of the Savior. Such are active cour- 
age, friendship, and patriotism. There are others to 
which less of popular favor has been given, but which 
are no less important to human happiness, and in them- 
selves no less worthy. Such are meekness, ^patience, 
forgiveness. The former class are in accordance with 
the natural impulses, the latter imply their restraint. 
An uninspired moralist would have advocated the popu- 
lar virtues more than the unpopular, because he would 
have shared the popular feeling. An ambitious leader 
would have pursued a similar course, because he would 
have expected thus to gain favor. But Jesus gave his 
influence for the unpopular virtues, commending a meek, 
yielding, and peaceable course of conduct, directing us to 
love our enemies, and to return good for evil — precepts 
which would appear impracticable if his own example 
had not illustrated them. (Luke xxiii. 31 ; 1 Peter ii. 
21-23.) This course showed at once his divine wisdom 
in enforcing those virtues which most needed commenda- 
tion, and his superiority to all attempts to gain popular 
favor, while it renders the success of his religion the 
more wonderful. (Matt. v. 1-12, 38-48.) 

It has been erroneously argued, even by some defend- 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 19 

ers of Christianity, that the Savior, in thus doing, dis- 
countenanced the manly virtues — courage, friendship, 
and patriotism. But this is going beyond the truth. He 
did not expressly commend these virtues, because they 
needed no commendation, being already favorites with 
the world ; but he inculcated the principles from which 
they must proceed — reverence for God rather than 
man, which is the source of true courage; and love, of 
which friendship and patriotism are only applications. 
(Matt. xxii. 39 ; Luke xii. 4, 5 ; John xv. 12.) 

Christianity goes deep into the cause of existing evils 
in society, and thus directs efforts more effectually to 
their removal. It does not ascribe these evils to the 
constitution of society, to defective institutions, to defi- 
ciency of wealth, or superabundance of population, but 
to sin ; and it comes to free mankind from this evil. 
Other reformers have endeavored to remove particular 
forms of suffering and wrong, and have thus often done 
well, carrying out various portions of the great design 
of Christianity ; but the gospel itself strikes at the root 
of all, representing the original evil of all to be man's 
disobedience to the divine law, and directing its strong- 
est efforts to remove this. (Matt. xv. 18 ; Luke vi. 
43.) This is not the ground which a fanatic would have 
taken ; for honest enthusiasm, excited by the view of 
visible wrongs, would have attacked them directly ; nor 
could such ground be taken by an impostor, the loftiest 
moral truth being discovered by one who himself was 
utterly untrue. 

This aim of Christianity to remove the evil within, as 
the great means for the removal of all outward evil, 
presents an answer to those who defend any form of 



20 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

wrong — as slavery, for instance — by asserting that it 
is not forbidden by Christ ; and also to those who con- 
sider his omitting to forbid it as furnishing an argument 
against his system. He did not undertake to specify the 
various forms of moral evil. He said nothing directly 
against despotism ; nor did his apostles denounce the 
bloody gladiatorial combats, the favorite amusement of 
the heathen around them. But Christ and his disciples 
alike, aiming to subject the heart to the divine law, in- 
culcated great principles, the most comprehensive of all 
being the love of God and man. Every institution and 
practice inconsistent with these is condemned by Chris- 
tianity, and either has yielded or must yield to its influ- 
ence. (Matt. v. 48; vii. 12; xxii. 37-40.) 

It may be said, however, that, excellent as is the 
morality of the Christian system, its excellence does not 
oblige us to receive the religion ; for that moral pre- 
cepts claim to be obeyed for their own evident truth and 
beauty. If we found a good precept in the Koran, we 
might adopt it without believing in Mohammed ; so we 
can use the moral commands of Jesus without belie vino: 
in his divine commission. To this we reply, — 

1. One who sincerely endeavors to obey the law of 
Christ for its intrinsic excellence will probably soon be 
convinced of his superhuman claims. (John vii. 17.) 

2. No merely human wisdom could have originated 
so holy a system ; or, if it could, those who were pure 
and exalted enough to invent it must have been supe- 
rior to deception ; and if the account of its first preach- 
ers be true, the system is divine. (1 John iv. 14.) 

3. The morality of Christianity is inseparably con- 
nected with its religious teaching. Its philanthropy 



THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 21 

proceeds from the love of God ; its courage from the 
reverence due to him. (Matt. v. 44, 45 ; x. 28.) 

The character of the Savior's teachings is well de- 
scribed in the following words of Professor Norton : 
"In the midst of men gross, sensual, uninformed, and 
unprincipled, his morality is the most pure, correct, and 
sublime ; his views of duty are the most rational and 
comprehensive. Not only does he transcend, beyond all 
comparison, the rulers and teachers of his own nation, 
but it is the highest praise of the philosophers of ancient 
times, of Socrates and of Cicero, that their notions of 
religion and duty have some imperfect resemblance to 
those of Jesus of Nazareth." (Internal Evidences, pp. 
308, 309.) 



22 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Section 8. Character of Jesus. 

We have next to consider the character of the person 
through whom the revelation was made. In most sys- 
tems the personal character of the founder is compara- 
tively of little importance. The works of Plato com- 
mand admiration from the intellectual greatness they 
display — not from the moral qualities of the writer. 
Even the laws of Moses derive their sanction in a very 
slight degree from the personal character of the great 
lawgiver. But when a teacher claims the love of his 
followers, he must display those qualities by which love 
is won. This claim is made by the Author of Christian- 
ity. He calls his disciples friends ; he requires them to 
commemorate him by a personal act of affection. (Matt, 
xii. 50; xxvi. 26; John xv. 14.) Neither a fanatic 
nor an impostor would have been likely to do this ; for 
the feelings of the one would have been exclusively en- 
gaged on the object of his enthusiasm, and the other 
would have been without genuine feeling. 

Those who do not receive Christianity as divinely re- 
vealed have often admitted the moral excellence of the 
Savior's character. Rousseau declared that K Socrates 
died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a god ; " 
and Renan declares, " Whatever may be the surprises 
of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His wor- 
ship will grow young without ceasing ; his legend will 



THE AUTHOR OP CHRISTIANITY. 23 

call forth tears without end ; his sufferings will melt the 
noblest hearts ; all ages will proclaim that among the 
sons of men there is none born greater than Jesus." 

The character of the Savior, as presented by the 
evangelists, combines the strength of man with the ten- 
derness of woman. He is faithful to every duty ; and 
the virtues of the citizen, the friend, and the son, in- 
cluding some which his religion has been wrongly sup- 
posed to depreciate, are all rightly balanced. (See be- 
fore, p. 19 ; see also Luke xix. 41-44 ; John xiii. 23 ; 
xix. 27.) He has courage to reprove most sternly, 
and gentleness to speak forgiveness to the penitent. 
(Matt, xxiii. 13-36 ; John viii. 11.) While going about 
doing good, and superior to all narrow prejudices of 
race or nation, he yet sets a limit to his own action and 
that of his disciples, lest their efforts should be wasted 
over too wide a field. (Matt. iv. 23 ; x. 5 ; xv. 24 ; 
Luke x. 30-37.) Denouncing the hypocrisy of the 
Pharisees, and preparing for the abrogation of the 
ceremonial law, he yet pays it respect while it remains 
in force. (Matt. viii. 4; xxiii. 2.) Forbidding ava- 
rice, and censuring the faults of the rich and powerful, 
he teaches the poor and oppressed lessons of patience 
and faith, and refuses to intermeddle with the distri- 
bution of property. (Matt. v. ; Luke xii. 14.) He 
makes claim to the highest dignity, yet simply and un- 
affectedly ; and without impairing his dignity, he per- 
forms a menial office when he can thereby teach an 
important lesson. (John xiii. 1-5.) He calls all men 
to come to him ; yet, instead of using flattering persua- 
sions, warns them that they will encounter obloquy and 
persecution. (Matt. xi. 28 ; Luke xxi. 12-16.) 



24 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

But it is as the period of his suffering draws nigh that 
the beauty of his character most fully appears. The 
wise and tender counsels to his friends (John xiii.-xvi.), 
the prayer with his disciples (xvii.), the struggle with 
himself in Gethsemane (Matt. xxvi. 39), the dignity 
with which he meets his captors, asking only that his 
disciples may be spared (John xviii. 4, 8), the patience 
he shows under the abuse of the Sanhedrim (John xviii. 
23) , the look that brings repentance to the disciple who 
has denied him (Luke xxii. 61), the answers and the 
bearing that almost subdue the pride and policy of the 
Roman governor (John xviii. 33-38) , — these prepare us 
for the still higher sublimity of the cross. Here we see 
him praying for the pardon of his enemies, and urging 
the only plea that could be available for them (Luke 
xxiii. 34) ; in his own agony, showing mercy to the 
penitent thief (43), and love and consideration for his 
mother (John xix. 26), and with his last breath com- 
mending his soul to God. (Luke xxiii. 46.) 

If this holiest of all characters did not exist, whence 
came its delineation? It is one of the highest achieve- 
ments of art to represent a perfect human form; what, 
then, must the artist be that could portray a perfect 
human soul ? Writers of fiction seldom, if ever, create 
incidents ; they merely vary and combine incidents from 
real life ; and the occurrences which have been here pre- 
sented had no prototype except in Jesus himself. The 
prayer for his murderers has often been imitated by his 
followers (Acts vii. 60) , but it was first uttered by him- 
self ; and the more than royal exercise of mercy, from a 
cross instead of a throne (Luke xxiii. 43), was un- 
exampled in the history of the world. 



THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 25 

This argument is thus strongly presented in a manu- 
script sermon by the present President of Harvard Col- 
lege : — 

* What wonderful, what superhuman genius is this, 
in this obscure Jew Matthew, that he should conceive 
of the office and work of a Messiah, never having heard 
of any Messiah except as an expected king and warrior ; 
that he should draw the picture of one claiming to have 
come from God, claiming to be the future judge of the 
quick and the dead, claiming to be living in the bosom 
of God, — and draw the picture with such majesty and 
grace that it has commanded the admiration and im- 
plicit faith of all succeeding ages. In moral and intel- 
lectual character, Jesus is drawn in such fair and beauti- 
ful lines in the Gospels, that you can scarce conceive it 
within the possibilities of human genius to have invented 
the character. But when you add to this moral worth 
and intellectual power the claim to divine origin and 
divine authority, and find these immeasurable claims of 
Jesus so sweetly blended with humility that the reader 
detects no incongruity whatever, you have then a por- 
trait which no human genius ever could, as it seems to 
me, have invented, and which certainly no human pen- 
cil could have drawn, had not the original been a living 
man." 

Section 9. Position, Claims, and Success of 

Jesus. 

The position, the claims, and the success of the 

Savior, taken together, present a proof in favor of his 

religion which may well be called a moral miracle. 

Eighteen centuries since, there was manifested among 

3 



26 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

men a new moral power which changed the habits of 
thinking and acting amonof mankind, and advanced the 
race in all that was worthy of pursuit far more than all 
the teachings of philosophy had done. This great spir- 
itual revolution came from a teacher in the obscure 
province of Galilee ; humanly speaking, a poor young 
man, with few advantages, rejected by his own nation, 
and put to death, at their instance, by the Romans, who 
ruled them. Yet this poor and suffering teacher has 
subdued the civilized world. Perceiving this wonder, 
we easily assent to the outward miracles which accom- 
panied it : nay, we receive them as necessary to account 
for this. 

Let us notice his position, in contrast with his claims. 
Jesus was born in humble circumstances (Matt. xiii. 
55) ; he possessed no literary advantages (John vii. 
15), and derived his support, while teaching, from the 
contributions of friends. (Luke viii. 3.) His cause had 
not, therefore, the attractions of worldly power, but 
won its way in despite of an opposition which had on 
its side the force of wealth, rank, and national favor. 
(Matt. viii. 20; John vii. 48.) Yet the greatness 
of his claims is unexampled. He claimed miraculous 
power (John x. 25) ; he asserted that he always did 
what was pleasing to God. (John viii. 29.) He allowed 
himself to be called the Son of David. (Matt. xxi. 
1(3.) He declared himself the promised Messiah (Matt, 
xvi. 17 ; John iv. 26) , and that in him the prophecies 
were fulfilled. (Luke iv. 21 ; xxiv. 27.) He asserted 
that he was the Son of God (John x. 36), and, in some 
sense, one with the Father. (John x. 30.) He foretold 
that he should rise from the dead (Luke xviii. 33), and 



THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 27 

declared that he should hereafter judge the world. (Matt. 
xxv. 31 ; John v. 29.) He announced himself as 
f * the light of the world" (John viii. 12), "the resur- 
rection and the life." (John xi. 25.) If he was not 
divinelv commissioned, he was o'uiltv of the most auda- 
cious blasphemy, or he was insane. Yet these stupen- 
dous claims were advanced with calmness, and often 
implied rather than expressed, as if with a quiet assur- 
ance of their truth. (Matt. xix. 26.) With these 
claims he united a plan of spiritual conquest surpassing 
the wildest dreams of earthly ambition : yet he knew, 
and foretold, his own approaching fate. (Matt. xx. 
17-19 : xxi. 38, 39.) But. instead of being discour- 
aged by this, he foresaw in his death the means for the 
triumph of his cause. (John xii. 32.) Such confidence 
would imply, in a merely uninspired man, the wildest 
self-delusion ; but the dignity of his demeanor, and the 
practical good sense of his precepts, contradict the sup- 
position. As to that of imposture, it cannot be enter- 
tained a moment. 

With this unfavorable position, and these lofty claims, 
the course pursued by this teacher was the most unlikely 
to win popular favor. The Jews were at that time 
divided into three sects — the Pharisees, ^adducees, and 
Essenes. Jesus denounced the formalism and hypocrisy 
of the Pharisees : he differed from the unscriptural 
views and lax morality of the Sadducees (Matt. xxii. 
23-30) : and did not sanction the asceticism, the celi- 
bacy, and community of goods of the Essenes. (Matt. 
xi. 19 : xix. -1, 11 : Luke xii. 13, 14.) The one feel- 
ing which all had in common — that of national pride — 
he stirred up against himself. A fanatic would have 



28 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 

shared this feeling, an impostor would have made use 
of it ; he, on the contrary, set morality above cere- 
monies (Matt, xii. 1—13), associated with publicans 
(Matt. ix. 10) , commended Samaritans (Luke x. 33 ; 
xvii. 16-19), and foretold the destruction of the holy 
city and temple. (Matt. xxiv. 2; xxii. 7.) And, while 
thus alienating the Jews, he did not seek the aid of 
the Gentiles. (Matt. xv. 24.) Yet he succeeded in 
establishing his system as the religion of the civilized 
world. 

Let the rapidity of its progress be observed. The 
disciples of Jesus rallied in Jerusalem after their Mas- 
ter's crucifixion, and in the midst of his enemies. The 
first day's public preaching is said to have gained three 
thousand converts. (Acts ii. 41.) Persecution scat- 
tered them, but only to spread their sentiments more 
widely. (Acts viii. 1, 4.) At length they provoked 
a contest with, the idolatry of the age, sustained by all 
the power of that empire which was then coextensive 
with the civilized world. Against all that power Chris- 
tianity prevailed. The Roman empire fell, but its bar- 
barian conquerors were subdued by the gospel. And 
now it is extending its outward conquests, it is purify- 
ing itself from corruptions of human device, and it is 
manifesting its power in the removal of evil institu- 
tions and customs. Such have been, and such are, the 
achievements of a system which its opponents would 
have us believe is but a collection of doubtful legends 
respecting a young carpenter of Galilee, and the fisher- 
men, his associates ! 



the author of christianity. 29 

Section 10. Death and Kesuerection of Jesus. 

The death and resurrection of Jesus are events which 
rest not alone upon the testimony of the New Testament 
historians. They must have taken place, in order to ac- 
count for the existence of Christianity at the present time. 

Some of the most important facts of Christianity are 
of such a character as never would have been invented 
by a writer friendly to its claims ; besides which, they 
were in their nature facts of general notoriety. Such 
are the birth of Jesus in a lowly station, his rejection 
by his countrymen generally, and his execution as a 
criminal. 

That Jesus died on the cross, we are assured by the 
unquestioned tradition, not only of the Christian church, 
but of its opponents. No heathen or Jewish writer 
ever denied the fact. This assurance, too, is confirmed 
by the nature of the case. He who undertakes the 
course of a reformer, and who exposes the vices of the 
leading classes, necessarily incurs their hatred. He 
who, with such a course, combines the claim to a divine 
commission, must either rule or perish. Unless his 
claim is allowed, the animosity it excites will be satisfied 
only by destroying him, as an impostor. The claims of 
Jesus were rejected by his nation : this we know, for 
that nation still rejects them. His execution, then, 
might be inferred as most highly probable, even if we 
possessed no record of it as a fact. 

It will not, then, be questioned that Jesus was cruci- 
fied — a mode of execution most painful, and, as then 
considered, most disgraceful. The triumph of his ene- 
mies was complete. 
3* 



30 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

How, then, can the present existence of his religion 
be accounted for? What gave his followers — terrified 
and scattered as they must have been — courage to 
assemble again, and confidence in a cause which had 
been thus signally defeated, so that they commenced and 
carried forward the bold and active measures that were 
necessary to make it successful ? 

The resurrection of Jesus alone can answer these 
questions. This was early proclaimed as the great fact 
of the religion. Such is the testimony of the book of 
Acts, which must be admitted to be at least the earliest 
and best account of the apostles' preaching that we have. 
(Acts ii. 24, 32; hi. 15; xvii. 31; xxv. 19.) Such 
has been the unvarying testimony of the church from 
that time to the present. 

Such is the testimony, among many others, of the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians (xv. 4, 14, 15, 20, 
23), respecting which the ablest of modern sceptics 
makes the followino* remarkable admission : " This con- 
elusion, however, does not shake the passage in the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians, which (it being un- 
doubtedly genuine) was written about the year 59 after 
Christ, consequently not thirty years after his resurrec- 
tion. On this authority we must believe that many 
members of the primitive church, who were yet living 
at the time when this Epistle was written, — especially 
the apostles, — were convinced that they had witnessed 
appearances of the risen Christ." (Strauss's Life of 
Jesus, Part III. chap. iv. § 138 ; first German edition, 
§ 134.) 

If Jesus was not divinely commissioned, there must 
have been a follower of his of genius equal to his own. 



THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 31 

For the very foundation of Christianity is in the death 
and resurrection of Christ ; and if he did not rise from 
the dead, it is impossible that he should build on these 
himself. Who, then, was it, that, after the death of 
Jesus, remodelled his teaching, rallied his disciples, and 
induced them to stand firm, even to the death? What 
a great man ! and what a madman ! The cross was 
io'iiominious ; he tried to make men believe a crucified 
Jew the king of the world ; and he succeeded ! 

The mode by which modern scepticism meets this - 
argument is twofold. Some have fancied that Jesus did 
not really die, but was resuscitated by careful treatment. 
This theory will be examined hereafter ; at present we 
only remark that it would not explain the resurrection 
of his religion. If Jesus, after enduring all the pain 
and shame of crucifixion, had been brought back to con- 
sciousness by human means, he could not have had 
either physical strength or mental confidence to resume 
the task of leadership ; and the depression of his disci- 
ples would not have been changed to animation and 
courage by his recovery, if it had not implied a divine 
interposition. 

On the other hand, Strauss, believing that Jesus 
actually died on the cross, explains his supposed reap- 
pearance as an illusion on the part of the disciples, re- 
sulting from the intensity of their feelings respecting him. 
But such an illusion — improbable in any case — could 
only be possible to minds under the strong excitement 
of restored faith. This explanation, therefore, leaves 
still unanswered the question how their faith was re- 
stored. How could they, who knew that their Master 
was dead, and his cause was prostrate, gain faith enough 



32 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

to prompt the strong imagination, not in one mind 
alone, but in many, that they saw him alive? 

The belief of St. Paul that he had seen the Savior, is 
accounted for by this writer from an excitable nervous 
temperament, subject to epileptic attacks, and disposed to 
see visions. This theory does great injustice to one of the 
most powerful minds that have ever existed ; and the 
difficulty of accounting for the excitement that produced 
the vision, is increased in his case by the fact, that he was 
not a mourning friend of Jesus, but a determined enemy 
of his cause. (Strauss's Life of Jesus, for the German 
People, Book I. 48, 49.) 



INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 33 



INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Section: 11. Evidence from Institutions. 

We have next to present an argument from the 
existence of certain institutions connected with our re- 
ligion. The present bears the impress of the past. 
We have reasoned, that, as Christianity now exists as 
the religion of the civilized world, there must have been 
some adequate cause to produce that prevalence ; so we 
have now to reason from its institutions to the cause 
that brought them into being. This proof is indepen- 
dent of every other, and would continue, even if the Old 
and New Testaments were lost. As they exist, how- 
ever, it confirms their statements. 

Institutions preserved among large bodies of men 
from age to age, afford proof of the reality of those 
events to commemorate which they were established. 
We Americans observe the Fourth of Julv to commem- 
orate the declaration of our national independence. That 
observance, so long as it is continued, will be a proof 
that the country was once subject to Great Britain, and 
that it threw off that subjection. If the whole world 
should relapse into barbarism, and all historical records 
should perish, this observance, if it was still kept up, 
would prove the events on which it was founded. When 
civilization revived, those who endeavored to restore 
some knowledge of the past would derive from this 
institution important testimony. The generation then 



34 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

living would assert that they had received this custom 
from their fathers, and that these in turn had said that 
they received it from theirs. If any one should assert 
that the custom might have sprung up in the dark ages 
that had intervened, the reply would be, that no nation, 
however ignorant, Could be persuaded to commemorate, 
as a well-known event in their own history, something 
which they had never heard of before ; still less to 
believe, and to teach their children, that this new 
observance was an old custom which they had received 
from former generations. The keeping of the day, 
then, must have arisen from some cause well known at 
the time, and important enough to warrant such a 
commemoration ; and as all the people throughout the 
country had the same tradition that this cause was the 
declaration of independence of the British government, 
there could be no question that such a declaration had 
taken place. 

Apply this to the institutions of the Old Testament. 
The Passover was the Independence festival of the 
Jews. (Exodus xii. 3-11 ; John xii. 1.) It is ob- 
served among them still, wherever they are scattered 
through the world ; and they all declare that they ob- 
serve it to commemorate their deliverance from Egyptian 
bondage by an especial act of divine power. Profane 
history testifies that they have thus observed it for at 
least two thousand years ; but, independently of that 
evidence, the fact of their present observance gives 
sufficient testimony, not only for that time, but for a 
much longer period. No one could have persuaded the 
Hebrews of any generation to adopt a new custom and 
believe it had been handed down to them by their 



INSTITUTIONS OP CHRISTIANITY. 35 

fathers, in commemoration of a great national deliver- 
ance, when no such deliverance had ever taken place. 

The observance of the Passover by the Jews thus 
proves beyond question the event with which it is con- 
nected in their tradition — the deliverance from Egypt. 
It does not, of course, prove the truth of any particular 
account of that deliverance ; but, testifying to the fact 
itself, it strengthens our faith in the general correctness 
of the history which records it. 

In the same way the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 
xxiii. 34) proves the wandering of the Israelites in the 
desert; the Feast of Purim (Esther ix. 20-32), still 
observed among the Jews, proves that there was a his- 
torical foundation for the Book of Esther ; and the Sab- 
bath, the Ten Commandments (Exodus xx.), the dis- 
tinction between clean and unclean meats (Levit. xi.), 
and other Jewish institutions, confirm the truth of those 
scriptures in which their origin is described. 

Still more important to us, as Christians, is the evi- 
dence afforded by the institutions peculiar to the New 
Testament — the Christian ministry and worship, the 
ordinance of baptism, and especially that of the Lord's 
Supper. We will exemplify the argument in the last- 
mentioned instance. In nearly all assemblies for Chris- 
tian worship it is customary at stated intervals to engage 
in an especial observance, in which bread and wine are 
partaken, and certain words repeated as having been 
spoken by the Founder of the religion : " This is my 
body, which is given for you ; " " This is my blood, of 
the New Covenant, which is shed for many, for the 
remission of sins ; " " This do in remembrance of me." 
(Matt. xxvi. 28; Luke xxii. 19.) These words are 



36 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

essentially the same in all churches, and under what- 
ever variety of forms. Let us suppose that this rite did 
not now exist, and had never been heard of, — would it 
be possible for any one, however eminent in power or 
genius, to induce the Christian world to receive it as 
an institution they had known from childhood, and as 
having come down from the first age of Christianity? 
Such a deception would be impossible now, and equally 
impossible in any former age. The institution, then, 
must have come down from the first age of Christianity. 

Now let us observe the meaning of the words repeated 
in the observance — words as intimately associated with 
it as an inscription with the monument on which it is 
engraved. These words imply, first, that the ordinance 
was established by the Founder of the religion. They 
are in the first person singular : " This is my body." 
We have here, then, a memorial from Jesus himself. 

They imply, secondly, that this Teacher foresaw his 
own violent death, and that his anticipation was ful- 
filled. Had it not been, the observance would have 
been a mockery. 

They imply, thirdly, that he had this foresight, while 
at liberty and at ease, seated at table with his friends. 
He could, then, have fled from his enemies. Instead, 
he employed those precious moments in instituting a rite 
commemorative of the death he was incurring. 

They imply, then, fourthly, his possession of pro- 
phetic foresight and unshaken courage, his voluntary 
endurance of a violent death, the affection for his fol- 
lowers which made him wish to secure their loving 
remembrance of him, and the confidence in the justice 
of his cause, which assured him that they would thus 
remember him. 



INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 37 

Lastly, the present existence of this rite shows that 
these anticipations were fully confirmed ; that the cause 
of Jesus did prevail, notwithstanding his death ; and that 
the reverence and affection of his followers have con- 
tinued to this day. 

This ordinance, then, by itself, presents sufficient 
proof that the Founder of Christianity endured a volun- 
tary death for the sake of mankind ; that he displayed, 
in its anticipation, unequalled dignity, heroic courage, 
tender friendship, and prophetic foreknowledge. Could 
these have been the qualities of a weak enthusiast, or of 
a wicked deceiver? 
4 



38 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 
I. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

Section 12. Third and Fourth Centuries. 

We have already observed, that, among the religions 
prevalent in the world, that of the Bible alone claims to 
rest on historical evidence, proving miraculous authenti- 
cation. 

The life and teachings of Jesus, and the miraculous 
proofs of his claim to a divine commission, had their 
date in an age of intelligence and of literary culture ; 
were testified to by those who witnessed them, recorded 
in part by these, and in part by their immediate follow- 
ers. The truth of these accounts was maintained by 
those who gave them, at the peril of their lives. They 
were received as true by the community of Christians, 
who had the best means of knowing whether they were 
true or not ; and no accounts contradictory to these 
were thus received. Some legendary additions were 
afterwards invented, but they were not admitted by the 
church as genuine ; and they are easily distinguishable 
from the true accounts, contrasting strongly with them 
by their indications of weakness, folly, and superstition. 

The records of Christianity are the books of the New 
Testament, and especially the four Gospels and the Acts 
of the Apostles. 

To say that a book is genuine, means that it is the 



EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 39 

production of the person whose name it bears ; to say- 
that it is authentic, means that the relations which it 
gives are correct. 

We have reason to believe in the genuineness and 
authenticity of the New Testament writings, alike from 
external and internal evidence. We will consider first 
that which is external — that is, from the testimony 
given by other writers. 

The four Gospels, and the other books of the New 
Testament, have the same traditional evidence of their 
genuineness and authenticity on which we receive other 
productions of a distant age. They have been given to 
us, as the work of the writers whose names they bear, 
by those who went before us ; they accepted them as 
such from those who went before them ; and so on to 
the beginning. 

The original manuscripts of the Gospels have prob- 
ably long since perished. Many manuscripts exist, 
however, and some of great antiquity. About six hun- 
dred and seventy Greek manuscripts of the four Gos- 
pels, or of different ones among them, have been 
examined, and some of these bear marks of having been 
written as early as the fifth century. Besides these, 
there are numerous manuscripts of early versions of the 
Gospels, in eleven different languages ; and there are 
others, of the works of the Christian Fathers, or early 
writers, in which very numerous quotations from the 
Gospels occur. 

It is generally admitted that the Gospels, as we have 
them now, were in common use at the end of the second 
century, or the year 200 from the birth of Christ. It 
is needless, therefore, to say much of the numerous 



40 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

writers who have quoted them since that time. A few, 
however, may well be mentioned. 

The year of our Lord 312 marks the era of the 
ascendency of Christianity in the Roman empire, which 
then included all the south of Europe, the north of 
Africa, and much of the west of Asia. In that year, 
Constantine, who favored Christianity, defeated his rival 
Maxentius, and entered Rome in triumph. Early in 
his reign, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, wrote a liistory 
of Christianity, in which he distinctly names our sacred 
books, attributing them to the same authors to whom 
they are now ascribed. He speaks, indeed, of a few 
of the less important, as having had their authorship 
doubted, but asserts the unquestioned genuineness of 
the four Gospels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul, the 
First of John, and the First of Peter. The discrimina- 
tion thus made shows that the early Christians did not 
receive, with blind credulity, every writing that claimed 
apostolic origin, and thus furnishes a strong proof in 
favor of those whose claims they unanimously admitted. 
The date of Eusebius may be fixed in the year 315. 

Origen, of Alexandria in Egypt, died in 253. He 
devoted his learning and industry to the exposition of 
the books of Scripture, as early as 216. He declares that 
" the four Gospels alone are received without dispute by 
the whole church of God under heaven." His quota- 
tions are so numerous that it has been said, "If we 
had all his w r orks remaining, we should have before us 
almost the w^hole text of the Bible." 

Early in the same century, Tertullian of Carthage 
gave equally distinct testimony. It has been observed 
that there are in his writings alone more and larger 



EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 41 

quotations from the small volume of the New Testament 
than there are from the numerous works of Cicero in all 
the writers of several successive ages. 

Clement of Alexandria, shortly before Tertnllian, 
gives an account, which he says he had received from 
presbyters of more ancient times, of the order in which 
the Gospels were written ; and speaks of them as of 
the highest authority, distinguishing between them and 
another narrative, then extant, called " the Gospel 
according to the Egyptians." 

An ancient fragment, known as " the Muratorian 
Canon," is identified as having been written about the 
year 200, by allusions in it to persons then or recently 
living. It contains a list of books then received as of 
canonical authority. In this list are mentioned the four 
Gospels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul, two of 
John, that of Jude, and the Apocalypse. The frag- 
ment derives its name from having been discovered, 
about a century and a half since, in the Ambrosian 
library at Milan, by the celebrated antiquarian Mura- 
tori. 

Section 13. First and Second Centuries. 

Among the writers of the second century we select 
first Irenseus, bishop of the Christian church at Lyons. 
He was probably born at Smyrna, about A. D. 180, 
and died about the end of the century. In his youth, 
at Smyrna, he had been a disciple of Polycarp, who had 
himself been a hearer of the apostle John. He had 
thus the best means of information, while his residence 
in different parts of the empire must have made him 
familiar with the opinions of Christians both in the east 
4 * 



42 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

and the west. He expressly relates the origin of the 
four Gospels. "Matthew," he says, "among the Jews, 
wrote a Gospel in their own language, while Peter and 
Paul were preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding 
a church there. And after their exit, Mark also, the dis- 
ciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us in writing 
the things that had been preached by Peter ; and Luke, 
the companion of Paul, put down in a book the Gospel 
preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the 
Lord, who also leaned upon his breast, he likewise pub- 
lished a Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus, in Asia." 

Pothmus, the predecessor of Irenreus in the charge of 
the church at Lyons, was ninety years old about A. D. 
170, when that church, with their brethren of Yienne, 
sent a letter to some eastern churches, giving an account 
of the sufferings of their martyrs. This letter, which 
still remains, has exact references to the Gospels of Luke 
and John, and to the Acts. This indicates that the 
writers had been taught to hold these books in honor 
by their instructor, who must have known how they 
were regarded by Christians in his earlier years. 

Justin Martyr was born about A. D. 103, at Xeapolis, 
in Samaria, — anciently Shechem, — and suffered death 
for his religion at Rome, about A. D. 165. He has, in 
his two principal writings, between twenty and thirty 
distinct quotations from the Gospels and the Acts. He 
recounts almost the entire history of the Savior, agreeing 
with the scriptural narrative in all but two instances £ 
One of these is a sentence ascribed to our Lord, which 
appears to be incorrectly quoted ; the other, the relation 
of a circumstance at his baptism, not mentioned by the 
evangelists, but derived apparently from some other 
account. 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 43 

Justin refers to the Gospel of John, not by name in- 
deed, but in three very marked instances ; ascribing the 
term "Logos," or "Word," to the Savior (John i.), 
quoting the answer of the Baptist to the emissaries from 
Jerusalem (John i. 20), and that of the Savior to 
Xicodemus. (John iii. 3.) These quotations are of 
great importance, as proving the antiquity of this Gospel,- 
which has been especially the object of attack by recent 
writers. It has been contended, however, on the ground 
of a slight difference in Justin's language from that of 
our common copies of John's Gospel, that he did not 
quote from that, but from some other document, now 
lost. But the very ancient Greek manuscript lately dis- 
covered at Mount Sinai shows that Justin quoted John's 
Gospel correctly, and thus proves its existence and re- 
ceived authority in the middle of the second century. 
(See Christian Examiner for May, 1866, article on 
Tischendorf, by Dr. Hedge.) 

The date of Papias is about twenty years before that 
of Justin, in the earlier part, therefore, of the second 
century. A fragment of his writing, preserved by 
Eusebius, tells us that Mark derived his Gospel from the 
preaching of Peter, and that the Gospel of Matthew was 
first written in Hebrew. This statement accords with 
that of Irenaeus, already mentioned. 

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, respecting whom we 
have the testimony of his pupil Irenaeus , suffered martyr- 
dom in the same persecution with Justin ; but, from his 
great age, his testimony goes farther back. It is stated, 
that when life was offered him on condition that he would 
revile Christ, he replied, " Eighty and six years have I 
served him, and he never did me wrong : how then can 



44 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

I revile my King and my Savior ? " Polycarp had been 
a scholar of the apostle John ; and his pupil Irenaeua 
records that he used to relate his conversations with 
John and others who had seen the Savior, " both con- 
cerning his miracles and his doctrine." An epistle of 
Polvcarp remains, containing nearly forty allusions to 
books of the Xew Testament. Among the historical 
books, his allusions are to passages in Matthew and 
Luke, and in the Acts. 

Clement, bishop or presiding officer of the church in 
Rome, is referred to by Paul as his " fellow-laborer," in 
Philippians iv. 3. An epistle of this companion of the 
earliest teachers still exists, in which he quotes from the 
Gospel of Matthew, not naming it indeed, but repeating 
passages of some length. He quotes, in the same man- 
ner, from the Epistle to the Romans, the First to the 
Corinthians, and that to the Hebrews. 

The three witnesses we have named last, with some 
others, are called the "Apostolical Fathers," as having 
lived in the times of the apostles, and in personal inter- 
course with them. This is fully established with regard 
to Polycarp, and appears to us to be so with regard to 
Clement. For Papias we have the testimony of Irenceus, 
in the next generation, who calls him a " hearer of John, 
and companion of Polycarp." He himself quotes as his 
instructor " John the Elder ; " but the lanoriaoe of Ire- 

9 O O 

naeus shows that this was no other than John the Evan- 
gelist. (See 2 John i. ; 3 John i. ; 1 Peter v. 1 ; 
Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. iii. 39 ; Rawlinson's Bampton 
Lectures, p. 465.) 

Justin, Polycarp, and Clement of Rome, while giving 
the testimony which has been described to the facts 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 45 

recorded in the Gospels, do not quote those writings by 
the names of their authors. Hence, modern ingenuity 
has imagined that they used other Gospels than those 
we now possess. On this we remark, — 

1. It is admitted that there were, in the first age, 
other accounts of the life of Jesus. (Luke i. 1.) They 
probably were imperfect, or by authors little known, and 
therefore fell into neglect on the appearance of full ac- 
counts from the pens of apostles and their companions. 

2. If those accounts had differed, as far as they went, 
from those we now have, they would have been preserved 
on account of that very difference. 

3. The references in these early Fathers agree with 
our present Gospels, sufficiently establishing that these 
are the same that they used. 

4. Papias distinctly testifies to the authorship of Gos- 
pels by Matthew and Mark. 

Section 14. Subject continued. Heretical 

Writers. 

The testimony of the ancient Fathers in favor of the 
historical books of the Xew Testament, and of the 
greater part of the Epistles, derives additional force 
from the fact that there were some books which did not 
receive from them the same strong attestation. This 
has been observed already, in regard to Eusebius. 
Among writers before his time, Dionysius of Alex- 
andria, A. D. 247, expressed doubts concerning the 
authorship of the book of Revelation. Origen, some- 
what earlier, questioned that of the Epistle to the He- 
brews, and the Second of Peter; and Caius, about A. D. 



46 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

200, denied that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
These facts prove that the early Christians did not re- 
ceive without discrimination whatever writing purported 
to be of apostolic origin, but that they examined care- 
fully, and only yielded their assent where the evidence 
was satisfactory. Notwithstanding the doubts referred 
to, the vast majority of Christians since have received as 
genuine the books which had thus been questioned ; how 
much more reason is there for receiving those more im- 
portant documents, the Gospels, the Acts, and most of 
the Epistles, whose claims appear to have been undis- 
puted from the first ! 

The correctness of the accounts in the Gospels may 
be strongly inferred from the deep interest which the 
early Christians took in the life and teachings of their 
Master. His* personal history was the basis of their 
instruction. Their teachers were constantly preaching 
"Jesus Christ, and him crucified," "Jesus and the Res- 
urrection." (Acts xvii. 18 ; 1 Cor. ii. 2.) " Now, there 
can be no supposition," says Mr. Norton, "more irra- 
tional, than that the history of Christ, which was thus 
promulgated by all his first disciples, and received by all 
their first converts, was lost before the beginning of 
the second century, and another history substituted in its 
place." (Genuineness of the Gospels, vol. iii. p. 312.) 

The ancient writers quoted above are from the main 
body of Christian believers, generally designated as 
" Catholic," or " Orthodox." But there were others in 
the first age of Christianity who have been, justly or 
unjustly, branded as " heretics." An additional proof 
of the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testa- 
ment books is afforded by the concurrence of these in 
their favor. 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 47 

The earliest among them were the Ebionites, Jewish 
Christians, who continued to regard their ancient Law as 
in force, even after the destruction of Jerusalem. They 
had a Gospel in the Hebrew language ; and comparing 
this fact with the testimony of Irenaeus and Papias, we 
have reason to believe it was the Gospel of Matthew. 
(See pp. 42, 43.) 

Xext to these were the Gnostics, a numerous class, 
including a varietv of sects. While the Ebionites were 
Jews, who retained^ their Jewish feelings, the Gnostics 
were converts from heathenism, who retained the habits 
of thought which had been familiar to their heathen 
philosophy. They claimed, as their name implies, supe- 
rior knowledge, and appear to have formed systems of 
faith for themselves, by combining what pleased them in 
Christianity with a refined or allegorical mvtholog;v. 
They were inclined to reject whatever was Jewish, main- 
taining even that the God of the Jews was not the 
Supreme Being. They would, therefore, have been 
very unlikely to receive books from Jewish sources, 
unless comino; to them with the strongest attestation of 
their truth. It is stated, however, by those early writers, 
from whom we derive our knoweledge of this sect, that 
Marcion, one of their leaders, A. D. 140, selected from 
the Gospels that of Luke as the best, and made use of 
it, omitting the first two or three chapters, for the reason 
that they were contrary to his views. He did not, it 
appears, call in question the actions, the miracles, or the 
apparent sufferings of the Savior : maintaining, however, 
that these last were only in appearance. 

Heracleon, a Gnostic leader, about A. D. 125, is 
asserted to have written commentaries upon Luke and 



48 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

John. Valentinus, at the same period, shows an ac- 
quaintance with the ideas and style of John's Gospel, 
and is asserted by IrenaBus to have made use of it. The 
Montanists, another sect of very early date, must have 
derived from this Gospel their idea of the Paraclete 
(John xiv. 16, 26) ; and the Alogi, who objected to the 
doctrine of the "Logos" (John i.), prove by their 
very existence the antiquity of the Gospel to which they 
objected. (See Christian Examiner, article quoted on 
page 43.) 

Basilides, A. D. 120, wrote a commentary, but 
whether upon all the Gospels, or only on some of 
them, does not appear. He was certainly acquainted 
with that of Matthew ; and according to the testimony 
of an ancient work, recently discovered, he quoted also 
that of John. The work referred to is a treatise on 
Heresies, ascribed to Hippolytus, bishop of Portus, 
A. D. 225. 

Thus the life of Christ, as we receive it, had the early 
acknowledgment of the Gnostic sect, notwithstanding 
the repugnance of their views to anything from a Jew- 
ish source. No other work, claiming the title of Gospel, 
appears to have been in use with them at this early 
period. The later Gnostics had some books which they 
called by that name, but they do not appear to have been 
accounts of the life of Jesus. 

It is asserted by Tertullian, A. D. 220, that the Gnos- 
tics undertook to prove their doctrines from the New 
Testament. He objects to their right to do this, on the 
ground that these Scriptures properly belonged to the reg- 
ular Christian churches, which could trace the doctrines 
they held back to the times of the apostles. His argu- 



EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 49 

ment proves that the churches then existing claimed an 
uninterrupted connection with the first Christian teach- 
ers, who lived not more than a century and a half before ; 
and it proves, too, that the New Testament was acknowl- 
edged as authority, both by these churches and their 
opponents. 

:c Without enumerating," says Paley, "the later sects 
of heretics, so called, who, with few and slight excep- 
tions, received the same books as their orthodox brethren, 
we find that the Sethians, the Montanists, the Marco- 
sians, Hermogenes, Praxeas, and Artemon, all included 
under that name between the years 150 and 200, 
received the Scriptures of the New Testament." 

Section 15. Jewish and Heathen Writers. 
Versions. Coins. 

Various Jewish writers have, at different periods, 
published works in which testimony was incidentally 
given with regard to Christianity. 

The Talmuds were composed as early as the second 
century. They speak of Jesus, and of several of his 
disciples; of his crucifixion; of his miracles, the reality 
of which they do not question, but represent them as 
wrought by magical power. They thus add the testi- 
mony of their national tradition to the truthfulness of 
the miraculous accounts in the New Testament. 

Josephus held a command among the Jews in their 
fatal rebellion, about A. D. 70. In one passage, as it 
stands in his works, respectful mention is made of Jesus ; 
and in another, of James, "the brother of Jesus, who is 
called Christ." These passages, however, are of uncertain 
5 



50 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

genuineness. The evidence of Josephus is of most value 
in confirming the representations of Jewish history 
and ideas, presented to us in the Gospels. Thus, to 
give a few instances, the account he gives of the cruel 
and suspicious character of the first Herod, and the atro- 
cities that marked the close of his reign, agrees, in its 
general features, with that presented in the second chap- 
ter of Matthew ; his account of Herod Antipas, of 
Herodias, and of John the Baptist, confirms that of the 
evangelists. (Matt, xiv.) The sudden death of Herod 
Agrippa I. agrees, as represented by Josephus, with the 
account in Acts xii. ; and the moderate character of 
Herod Agrippa II. , and the fact that he was intrusted 
with some authority over the Temple, as Josephus de- 
clares, agree with the history given in Acts xxv., xxvi. ; 
Josephus, Antiq. xvii. 6 ; xviii. 5 ; xix. 8 ; xx. 8 ; Bell. 
Jud. II. 16. 

Among heathen writers, the three great opponents of 
Christianity were Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian. The 
last, nephew of Constantine, and known as the Em- 
peror Julian the Apostate, lived at a period so late that 
his evidence is of minor importance. His allusions and 
references to the Christian Scriptures are very numerous, 
and he never questions their genuineness. 

Porphyry, about A. D. 275, wrote a work against 
Christianity, which the mistaken zeal of subsequent ages 
has destroyed. What it contained we have to learn from 
the replies of Christian writers. From these it appears 
that Porphyry referred to the Gospels and Acts as the 
only acknowledged histories of Christ and his religion. 

Still more valuable is the evidence of Celsus, a heathen 
philosopher, who wrote about A. D. 150. His book, 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 51 

like that of Porphyry, is lost ; but much may be learned 
of its contents from, the reply of Qrigen. He tells us 
that Celsus used these words : " I could say many things 
concerning the affairs of Jesus, and those, too, different 
from those written by the disciples of Jesus ; but I pur- 
posely omit them." This implies the existence of ac- 
counts written " by the disciples ; " and it can hardly be 
believed that if Celsus really possessed any evidence of 
importance contradictory to theirs, he would have sup- 
pressed it. 

Elsewhere he accuses the Christians of altering the 
Gospel, referring in proof to certain readings which were 
different in different copies. This variation, which im- 
plied, probably, no evil intent, but only mistakes of 
transcribers, shows that copies must have been numer- 
ous, and that a considerable space of time must have 
passed since the original writing. 

In another place, the Jew whom Celsus introduces 
closes an argument with the boast, " These things, then, 
we have alleged to you out of your own writings, not 
needing any other weapons." 

The particulars to which Celsus refers, by way of 
objection, are such as are contained in our present Gos- 
pels. Such are the genealogies in Matthew and Luke ; 
the precept not to resist evil (Matt. v. 39) ; the 
woes denounced by Christ (Matt, xxiii. 13—36.) : some 
of the particulars of his trial and crucifixion ; and the 
difference in the accounts of the resurrection, given 
by the evangelists. He refers distinctly to statements 
which we find only in the Gospel of St. John, of the 
character of Christ as the "Logos," or divine Word, 
and of the effusion of blood and water from the wound 



52 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in the Savior's side (John i. ; xix. 34) , thus proving the 
reception of that Gospel at the early date at which he 
wrote. That date was less than a hundred years after 
the earliest of the Gospels claims to have been written. 
It is evident, from Celsus, that thus early they were 
acknowledged by Christians, as they are now, to be the 
authentic records of the life of the Savior. And as the 
interval of a hundred years is measured by two lives of 
no extraordinary length, there is reason to believe that 
the Christians of that age had good grounds for their 
confidence in these writings. 

Besides the evidence of individual writers, we have, 
to support the claims of the Christian Scriptures, another 
testimony of great importance. Versions or translations 
were made of them at a very early date, the Peshito or 
ancient Syriac probably in the second century, and many 
others at periods soon after. These versions confirm the 
general accuracy of the copies of the New Testament 
which we possess in the original Greek ; and their exist- 
ence shows the high regard in which those writings were 
held, from the fact that the labor of translating them 
was so early undertaken. A similar argument may be 
derived from the existence of commentaries, paraphrases, 
and harmonies of the Gospels, by Origen, and others of 
the ancient Greek Fathers. 

In some instances, the minute accuracy of accounts in 
the book of Acts is proved by ancient coins still in 
existence. One of these, struck at Cyprus, in the 
days of the magistrate who succeeded Sergius Paulus 
(Acts xiii 7), shows that he bore the same title, of 
Proconsul, which the Christian history assigns to his 
predecessor, Another, of the city of Philippi, pro vet 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 53 

that it was, as described in Acts xvi. 12, " a colony," or a 
place where a body of Roman soldiers had been settled. 
In the same manner, four peculiar expressions, used in 
the account of the disturbance at Ephesus (Acts xix.), 
are shown by ancient coins, as well as by other testi- 
mony, to be in accordance with the usage of that city. 
Its presiding deity was called "the great Goddess 
Diana ; " the city professed itself her worshipper by the 
peculiar term vswxogog. (Verse 35.) One magistrate was 
known as ygaiiuarev;, translated " town clerk " in the 
same verse; and others were designated as "Asiarchs," 
or chief of Asia. (Verse 31.) (See Rawlinson's 
Bampton Lectures, p. 488.) 

H. INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

Section 16. Language ; Geographical Accu- 
racy, &c. 

We have next to consider the Internal Evidence of 
the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testament, 
and especially of the Gospels. This evidence comes to 
us from an examination of their contents. 

1. We observe first the language in which they are 
written. It is that of a peculiar period, and a peculiar 
class of persons. It is Greek, but not such as we find 
used by native Greek authors. There are frequent 
Hebrew idioms in it, showing that the writers were 
of Jewish orioin. 

o 

Familiar instances of such idioms may be found in the 
use of " and " for other conjunctions, and the use of 
"lo," or "behold," as expletive. (Matt. ii. 1, 9, 13, 
5* 



54 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

19. See 1 Sam. xxiii. 1, 3; 1 Kings xiii. 1.) "An- 
swered" is used redundantly in the expression " answered 
and said." (Luke ix. 49. See 2 Kings vii. 13.) "Thou 
sayest " is used as an expression of assent, as it would 
be in Hebrew, with a particle meaning " thus," or 
"rightly." (Matt, xxvii. 11. See Exodus x. 29.) 
The expression, " It is easier for a camel to go through 
the eye of a needle," is proverbial in the Rabbinical 
writings ; and they employ the expression " new birth " 
for a change of personal character, for which it is never 
used in classical Greek. (John iii. 3. See also John 
iii. 10. See Marsh's Michaelis, chap. iv. sect. 3.) 

2. The narratives show, throughout, an intimate ac- 
quaintance with the geography, history, government, 
customs, and modes of thought and feeling in Palestine 
and the other countries where the scene is laid. It is 
very difficult for a writer of fiction to be accurate in 
these respects ; but the instances are extremely rare in 
which there is even a seeming inaccuracy regarding them 
in the writers of the Xew Testament. 

Take, for an example, the fourth chapter of John. 
The three provinces, Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, are 
accurately distinguished. (Verses 3 and 4.) This shows 
the writer to have been familiar with the country of 
which he is speaking. Even in our time, when books 
are multiplied by the press, and geography is studied in 
every school, how many Americans know what county 
in England lies between Yorkshire and Northumberland ? 
How many Englishmen know what state lies between 
Ohio and Illinois? Still farther (verse 5), a city of 
Samaria is named Sychar — a name sufficiently near to 
identify it with the ancient Shechem, yet changed as it 



EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 55 

would probably be by a long lapse of time, aided 
perhaps by national antipathy, for the word Sychar 
means "drunkard." (See Isai. xxviii. 1.) Reference 
is made to " a parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his 
son Joseph," apparently that spoken of in Gen. xlviii. 
22. (Compare, also, Gen. xxxiii. 19 ; xxxv. 4, 5.) The 
city is within sight of a mountain, where the Samaritans 
worshipped. (Verse 20.) The hereditary jealousy be- 
tween Jews and Samaritans (verse 9) is consistent with 
narratives and sentiments in 1 Kings xii., 2 Kings xvii., 
Xeh. iv., Ecclus. 1. 26 9 and elsewhere. The separation 
still continues ; a scanty remnant of the Samaritans still 
worship on Mount Gerizim ; at its foot is Shechem, on 
the road from Judea to Galilee ; and the well itself is 
still pointed out to the traveller. 

Renan, an unbeliever in Christianity as a miraculous 
revelation, bears witness to the astonishing accuracy of 
the Gospels in their local details. He says, "I have 
travelled through the evangelical province in every direc- 
tion ; I have visited Jerusalem, Hebron, and Samaria ; 
scarcely any locality important in the history of Jesus has 
escaped me. All this history, which, at a distance, seems 
floating in the clouds of an unreal world, thus assumed 
a body, a solidity, which astonished me. The striking 
accord of the texts and the places, the wonderful har- 
mony of the evangelical ideal with the landscape which 
served as its setting, were to me as a revelation. I had 
before my eyes a fifth gospel, torn but still legible, and 
thenceforth, through the narratives of Matthew and Mark, 
instead of an abstract being, which one would say had 
never existed, I saw a wonderful human form live and 
move." (Life of Jesus. Introduction.) 



56 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Strauss testifies not less distinctly to the perfect ac- 
curacy of the complicated statement given by Luke 
(iii. 1, 2) respecting the date of John the Baptist's 
preaching. (Life of Jesus, § 48 ; first German edition, 
§ 44. Rawlinson's Bampton Lectures, p. 501.) 

The agreement of the New Testament writers, with 
what is known from other authorities of the history, the 
customs, and the feelings of the age and people described, 
is not less striking than their geographical accuracy. 
We have seen already (p. 50) that their accounts of 
the Herod family agree minutely with what we learn 
from Josephus. Not one educated Christian in a hun- 
dred has a correct knowledge of the complicated rela- 
tions of that family ; but the sacred historians never 
confuse one member of it with another. 

Such facts are of the more importance because the 
Jewish period of Christianity was so short. The Gos- 
pel soon found its most numerous adherents among the 
Gentiles ; and after the Jewish war, A. D. 70, national 
prejudice was deepened on either side, and the remnant 
of the Jewish Christian church occupied a separate posi- 
tion, and what was at length regarded as an heretical one. 
Books from that source would not readily be received 
among the Gentile Christians, unless from authors pos- 
sessing the highest claims. The peculiarities of the 
New Testament show that it was written by Jewish 
Christians ; but no Jewish Christians, after the first age, 
could have gained acceptance for their books among the 
Gentile branch of the church. It must, therefore, have 
been written in the first age. 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 57 



Section 17. Honesty and Consistency. Dif- 
ferences. 

3. There are marks of a purpose to tell simply and 
honestly the truth. Such is the absence of eulogy, or 
inflated description, indeed of any description whatever, 
in relation to the person and demeanor of the Savior, or 
of his prominent followers. The few exceptions, occur- 
ring mostly in the Gospel of John, are slight, and indi- 
cate how little of this character is to be found. (See 
John ii. 24, 25; vii. 46; xiii. 1, 3.) 

Such, too, is the narration, without any attempt at 
concealment or palliation, of incidents unfavorable to 
the intelligence or characters of the first disciples ; their 
slowness to understand their Master ; the earthly nature 
of their expectations and motives ; the betrayal of him by 
one, the denial by another, the desertion by all. (Matt, 
xvi. 7, 8; xix. 27 ; xx. 21, 24; xxvi. 47, 56, 70.) 

The narrative of the Savior's trial before the Sanhe- 
drim, and subsequently before Pilate, is given without 
attempt at exaggeration, and represents the examination, 
unjust as it was, as marked by no slight degree of delib- 
eration. (Matt. xxvi. 57—68 ; John xviii. 13—28.) 

The mention of the doubts, that existed in some minds 
with regard to the Savior's claims, would have been sup- 
pressed by artful partisans. (See Matt, xxviii. 17 ; Mark 
xvi. 13, 14; John vii. 5.) 

4. There are marks of the deep impression which the 
Savior's demeanor and words had produced on the minds 
of those present. 

An illustration of this is afforded in the conduct of the 



58 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

disciples on some occasions, mentioned incidentally, with- 
out any apparent purpose, on the part of the narrator, of 
exhibiting the greatness of the Savior. (Mark x. 32 ; 
Luke ix. 45.) 

Words in the language which Jesus spoke are some- 
times introduced, when the narrative would have been 
equally clear and correct if only the Greek translation 
of them had been given. The reason obviously is, that 
in the instances referred to, the Syriac words were closely 
connected with some solemn and striking incident, and 
were thus deeply impressed on the memory of those 
who heard them, so that their feelings prompted them 
to repeat those very w r ords. Such an expression is 
t? Talitha cumi." (Mark v. 41.) Another instance is 
"Ephphatha." (Mark vii. 34.) This use of language 
not only shows the faithfulness of the writer, but pre- 
sents a strong proof of the reality of the miraculous 
events recorded. (See Furness's Remarks on the Four 
Gospels, p. 204.) 

5. The characters described are consistent, each with 
himself, even their apparent inconsistencies exhibiting 
such faults as were the natural accompaniments of their 
respective excellences. Thus Peter, at one moment, 
receives high commendation from his Master for his bold 
declaration of faith in his Messiahship. (Matt. xvi. 
16.) Shortly after, the same vehemence of character 
leads him to incur blame. (Verse 22.) He declares 
that he never will deny his Lord (xxvi. 33), draws the 
sword in his defence (John xviii. 10) , but shortly after 
denies him. (Matt. xxvi. 70.) Similar marks of this 
excitable but unstable character may be found in Matt, 
xiv. 28, 30 ; John xiii. 6,9; xxi. 7, 21. 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 59 

6. That the Gospels are from the hands of different 
authors is proved by the difference of the narratives. 
That of Mark is much the shortest, yet he gives some 
particulars more fully than either of the other writers. 
(See Mark v. 41 ; vii. 34; ix. 23,24.) Matthew and 
Luke give different, but not necessarily inconsistent, ac- 
counts of wonderful events attending the Savior's birth. 
Matthew alone gives the Sermon on the Mount at length 
(chapters v., vi., vii.), of which Luke presents only a 
sketch. (Luke vi. 17-49.) Yet Luke is in general the 
fullest in his narration, and we have from him alone 
the parables of the Good Samaritan (x. 30) ; of the 
Prodigal Son (xv. 11), and of the Rich Man and Laza- 
rus (xvi. 19) ; the incident of the Penitent Thief (xxiii. 
40), and the walk to Emmaus. (xxiv. 13.) 

The Gospel of John differs from the others still more 
widely in its narrative, and also in its style of expression 
and of thought. He relates occurrences which are men- 
tioned by no other evangelist, as the conversation with 
x\'icodemus (chap, iii.), and with the Samaritan woman 
(chap, iv.), and the raising of Lazarus (chap, xi.) ; 
and he omits much which the others relate. The para- 
bles of the Savior, as given by the other evangelists, are 
stories. (See Luke xii. to xvi.) Those given by John 
are not stories, but comparisons. (See John x. 1-16 ; 
xv. 1-9.) The whole style of John's Gospel is more 
abstract than that of the others. It dwells more upon 
the personal character and dignity of the Savior (see 
chap. viii. 12-59, and passages referred to above), and 
rises to loftier heights of spiritual grandeur than the other 
Gospels. (See iv. 21-24; xi. 25; xvii.) 

But, notwithstanding these differences, the narrative 



60 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

in all the Gospels is substantially the same ; the charac- 
ter of Jesus, and the great facts of his ministry, his 
betrayal, self-sacrificing death, and resurrection, are the 
same in all ; the parables in Luke, and the comparisons 
in John, exhibit the same power of imaginative illustra- 
tion in the great Teacher ; and the representations given 
in all, of God's love and of man's duty, are in perfect 
agreement. 

That there should be differences between the writers, 
in regard to style of thought and language, is readily 
accounted for by their different mental constitutions. 
That there should be differences in the narratives, in 
points of secondary importance, is only what takes place 
whenever a series of occurrences is related by different 
persons. This is well exemplified by Mr. Xorton in the 
fact that no two Roman historians agree fully in the par- 
ticulars of the assassination of Julius Cassar. 



Section" 18. Undesigned Coincidences. 

7. Besides the direct agreement in important points, 
spoken of above, there are numerous coincidences be- 
tween the accounts, which afford the stronger proof of 
the faithfulness of the witnesses, from the fact that they 
are evidently undesigned. As a specimen of this kind, 
see Luke xxii. 27, where an allusion is made to the 
Savior's washing the disciples' feet, as recorded by John, 
chap. xiii. Without this narrative by John, we should 
not know what the words in Luke meant, " I am among 
you as he that serveth." On the other hand, John does 
not tell us the reason of this impressive lesson of 
humility ; this we learn from Luke (xx. 24) , w There 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 61 

was also a strife among them, which should be accounted 
the greatest." 

In other instances, where the accounts apparently con- 
tradict each other, we discover, on examination, that it is 
only because circumstances omitted by one historian are 
given by another, perhaps supplying what was needed to 
explain the narrative of the first. For example, Luke 
tells us that the Jews brought Jesus before Pilate on a 
charge of claiming the title of king — a charge involving 
treason against the existing government ; that Pilate 
asked Jesus if he was a king ; that he replied in the 
affirmative ; and that Pilate then said, w I find no fault 
in this man." Upon this narrative alone, the result to 
which Pilate came is unaccountable ; it seems the ac- 
quittal of a prisoner whose only words were an avowal 
of the truth of the charge against him. (Luke xxiii. 
1-4.) But we discover from John, that Pilate in the 
mean time had examined Jesus in private, and learned 
from him of the spiritual and unworldly nature of the 
kingdom he claimed. (John xviii. 33-38.) On the other 
hand, John gives us no explanation of the reason why 
Pilate asked the prisoner if he was a king. This Luke 
supplies, by stating that he was accused of claiming that 
title. Thus the two narratives, instead of contradicting, 
fit into and explain each other. 

The coincidences among the first three Gospels are 
very numerous, whole narratives being frequently given 
in almost the same words. (Compare Matt. ix. 14-17, 
Mark ii. 18-22, and Luke v. 33-38.) For this reason, 
some modern writers have practically reduced the number 
of historians who record the life of Jesus from four to 
two, maintaining that the first three evangelists, whom 



62 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

they class together under the name of Synoptics, were 
in effect but different copyists from an original document 
now lost, or different collectors of the same series of 
traditional accounts. We reply to this, first, that if an 
orioinal document had existed, so well known and so 
highly prized that three of the four Gospels were drawn 
from it, it would have been carefully preserved, and we 
should find references to it in the Gospels themselves, 
and in other early Christian writings ; whereas, not only 
is it not in existence, but not a trace of it remains in 
ancient record or tradition. That it ever existed at all 
is but a modern inference. 

Secondly, the supposition that the first three evangel- 
ists found their materials in the same series of traditional 
accounts is probably true, with the exception that the 
accounts were contemporaneous instead of being tradi- 
tional. Everything relating to the Savior being eagerly 
heard and constantly repeated, there must have been, 
current in the primitive churches, an unwritten life of 
Christ, expressed in words which the sacred historians 
naturally adopted, except where their separate informa- 
tion gave them reason for departing from it. (See Nor- 
ton's Genuineness of the Gospels, vol. i., note D.) 

8. The accounts in the historical books are confirmed 
by the agreement of the Epistles with them. The most 
important of these are of unquestionable genuineness, 
being admitted even by writers who dispute the authority 
of the Gospels. (See the quotation from Strauss, p. 30.) 
They have been received as genuine from the first age, 
and from the nature of the case, forgery would have 
been nearly impossible without detection ; for they are 
evidently portions of a correspondence ; letters some- 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 63 

times referring to former letters (2 Cor. vii. 8 ; 2 Thess. 
ii. 2) ; at other times discussing questions then agitating 
the church (1 Cor. viii. 1 ; x. 25) ; elsewhere dealing 
with personal matters, and containing personal saluta- 
tions. (Rom. xvi ; Philemon.) The accounts they 
give of Christianity agree, in all important respects, 
with those of the Gospels and the Acts. 

As instances of this coincidence, we may notice, first, 
that the resurrection of the Savior is described by all the 
four Evangelists, and is represented in the Acts as occu- 
pying a place of the highest importance in the preaching 
of the apostles. (Acts xvii. 18.) Compare with this the 
expressions on the same subject in the Epistles. (1 Cor. 
xv. 12-18 ; Col. ii. 12 ; 1 Thess. i. 10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 8.) 

The account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, 
given in the Gospels, is confirmed in 1 Cor. xi. 23-26. 

The peculiar character of the apostle Peter, ardent, 
but subject to sudden changes of purpose, already com- 
mented on as displayed in the Gospels (see p. 58) , is 
exhibited alike in an incident narrated in Gal. ii. 11-14. 



Section 19. Agreement of Luke's Writings 
with the Epistles. 

The agreement between different portions of the Xew 
Testament is most strikingly observable with regard to 
the Gospel of Luke and the Acts, when taken in con- 
nection with the Epistles. These various writings are 
connected together, and their authenticity established, by 
a peculiar chain of internal evidence. For distinctness' 
sake we will designate the links of this chain by Roman 
numerals. 



64 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

I. There are very numerous coincidences between the 
Acts and the Epistles, which establish the authority of 
the Acts as a history, and that of the Epistles as genuine 
letters of the apostle. This evidence has been brought 
forward in a very convincing manner in the Horse Pau- 
linas of Dr. Paley. To exemplify it, we select the fol- 
lowing instances : — 

In Gal. i. 18, the apostle speaks of visiting Jeru- 
salem the first time after his conversion, and remain- 
ing only fifteen days. So short a stay in that city, on a 
visit which must have been alike interesting and im- 
portant to himself and to the Christians there, seems to 
require explanation. We find this in Acts ix. 29, and 
again in Acts xxii. 18, from which we learn that he left 
hastily, in consequence of designs against him. 

From 1 Thess. iii. 1, 2, 6, it appears that Paul was 
for a time alone at Athens, having sent Timothy to 
Thessalonica, and that Timothy joined him afterwards. 
The history (Acts xvii. 14, 15) agrees with this, except 
that Timothy is left at Berea, instead of being sent to Thes- 
salonica. This difference shows that the history and the 
Epistle were not artfully conformed to each other. In 
fact there is no real disagreement ; but only the histo- 
rian, writing briefly, omitted to mention the sending of 
Timothy to Thessalonica, thus leaving the cause of his 
absence from Paul unexplained. 

It is implied in 1 Cor. i. 12, and iii. 6, that Apollos 
preached at Corinth after Paul had left that city. This 
agrees with what is incidentally expressed in the history. 
(Acts xviii. 1, 24-28 ; xix. 1.) 

We learn from Rom. xv., that Paul, at a late period 
of his ministry (see verse 19), intended to go to Jcru- 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 65 

salem (verse 25), to cany to the Christians there a 
collection made for them by those in Macedonia and 
Achaia (verses 26, 28), but that he anticipated dan- 
ger from the opponents of Christianity at Jerusalem. 
(Verse 31.) The account in Acts agrees with this in 
every particular. Paul, at a late period of his ministry 
(chap, xx.), returned from Achaia, or Greece (verse 2), 
through Macedonia (verse 3), to Syria. He was on his 
way to Jerusalem (verse 22), with anticipations of dan- 
ger (verses 22, 23), and on an errand of charity (xxiv. 
17) ; and his anticipations of danger were fulfilled. 

The above are but a few specimens of the very numer- 
ous coincidences, often in minute particulars, and obvi- 
ously undesigned, which prove alike the genuineness of 
the Epistles and the knowledge and faithfulness of the 
historian. 

II. The fact that this historian was a companion of 
the apostle Paul, which might be inferred from the ful- 
ness and accuracy of his accounts, is established by the 
manner in which he uses the pronoun we when describing 
the journeys of the apostle. (Acts xvi. 10, 11, 16; 
xx. 13, 14; xxvii., xxviii. ) 

III. The abrupt manner in which the book of Acts 
terminates shows that it was written during the life of 
Paul, and when he had been about two years a prisoner 
at Rome. (Acts xxviii. 30, 31.) 

IY. The Gospel of Luke and the Acts were written 
by the same person. This is proved by the prefaces or 
introductions to both. (Luke i. 1—4; Acts i. 1.) 

V. The Gospel of Luke was written before the Acts ; 
that is, as early at least as the second year of Paul's im- 
prisonment in Eome, or A. D. 62. (Acts i. 1.) 
6* 



6Q EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Thus the Epistles and Acts sustain each other, and 
the Acts sustains the Gospel ; all proving that this ac- 
count of the Savior's life was written by a companion of 
the apostle Paul, not more than about thirty years after 
the crucifixion. 



Section 20. Writings of the Apostle John. 

A train of argument somewhat similar furnishes proof 
of the genuineness and authenticity of the writings 
ascribed to the apostle John. 

I. The writer of the Gospel claims for himself (or. if 
the passage, John xxi. 24, is from another hand, then 
some witness, very near the time of writing, claims for 
him) that he was one of the apostles, and distinguished 
by the especial love of his Master. 

II. The style of this writer is marked by peculiar 
expressions, which occur alike in the Gospel and the 
Epistles, and one of them in a remarkable passage in 
the Revelation. (Compare John i. 1—4 with 1 John i. 
1, 2, and Rev. xix. 13. Also John xiii. 34, and 2 
John, 5 ; John xxi. 24, and 3 John 12.) 

III. If these works were from the same pen, and the 
writer an apostle, we learn from Rev. i. 1, 4, 9, that he 
was the apostle John. 

IV. The comment on a supposed prediction of the 
Savior, in John xxi. 23, indicates that the disciple to 
whom it applied was yet living, and appears to be from 
his own pen. 

V. The designation of one of the apostles by the 
terms "another disciple" (xviii. 15), and "the disciple 
whom Jesus loved " (xxi. 20) , seems only to be accounted 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 67 

for by the fact that he was himself the writer. It is 
hard to conceive the motive which any other person 
would have to suppress the name. 

VI. There is a prominence given to this apostle, in 
several occurrences, omitted or less minutely narrated in 
the other Gospels, and in some of which he appears in 
marked superiority to Peter. (See John xiii. 23 ; xviii. 
15, 16 ; xix. 26 ; xx. 4, 8 ; xxi. 7, 20-22.) It is dif- 
ficult to account for this without admitting that this 
apostle was the author of the Gospel. Renan conjec- 
tures that a degree of vanity or self-interest influenced his 
judgment or his recollection. (Life of Jesus, Wilbour's 
translation, pp. 26, 27, 322, 349.) This would natu- 
rally exhibit itself, not in false statements, but in the 
selection of incidents that were most favorable to him- 
self. This supposition, therefore, while it presents the 
apostle as liable to human imperfection, does not seriously 
affect his credibility as an historian. More probably 
these were instances of faithful simplicity of narra- 
tion, the facts being known to the writer more fully 
because he was an actor in them ; but he was 
himself aware how difficult it would be to write the 
life of his Master and Friend without making himself 
prominent, and therefore with studious modesty veiled 
his own name under circumlocutions. Another theory 
to account for his prominence in this Gospel is, 
that it was written, not by John himself, but by his 
attached disciples, from their remembrance of what he 
had told them. If so, the Gospel is still, in substance, 
his testimony. But this theory is less probable, as his 
disciples, intent on doing him honor, would have made 
his name conspicuous, instead of concealing it. 



68 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Among the arguments which have been urged, espe- 
cially by writers of what is called " the Tubingen school," 
against the genuineness of John's Gospel, the most im- 
portant are, the different representation which it gives of 
the scene and manner of the Savior's instructions ; its pecu- 
liar language concerning the Logos, the Word, or per- 
sonified Wisdom of God ; the remarkable character of its 
leading miracle, — that of the raising of Lazarus, — which, 
it is said, could not have been omitted by the other evan- 
gelists if it had actually taken place ; and a difference be- 
tween the account of this Gospel and that of the others 
with regard to the date of the last supper, and conse- 
quently of the crucifixion. The others represent the last 
supper as identical with the feast of the passover. (Matt, 
xxvi. 19 ; Mark xiv. 16 ; Luke xxii. 13.) John appears 
to place it before that feast. (John xiii. 1 ; xviii. 28.) 

In answer to these arguments we have first to observe, 
that the difference between the accounts of John and 
those of the other writers is owing in part to the dif- 
ferent style of that apostle, and in part to an obvious 
purpose not to repeat what had been said before. His 
Gospel appears to be supplementary to the others ; and 
this, not only in the facts it records, but in its doctrine. 
The personal attachment of the writer to his Lord led 
him to record, more fully than the three preceding 
writers, those discourses in which Jesus asserted' his own 
dignity (chapters v., vi., x.) ; and his spiritual insight 
made him appreciate and remember such instructions as 
those respecting the new birth, and the promise of the 
Comforter. (Chap, hi., xiv. 16, 26.) 

The exalted and mysterious dignity of the Savior, 
however, is expressed in Matt. xi. 27 as strongly as in 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 69 

almost any passage in John ; and we find promises of 
the assistance of the Holy Spirit in such passages as 
Matt. x. 19, 20; Luke xxiv. 49. 

It is urged by the writers in question, that the lan- 
guage of this Gospel with regard to the " Word" (in 
Greek, Logos, John i. 1—14) resembles that in use among 
those who, under the name of Gnostics, endeavored to 
combine Christianity with some heathen views which 
claimed the name of philosophy. Hence they infer that 
this Gospel was not written until such views had become 
diffused, fixing its date at about A. D. 150. In reply 
to this, we may remark, that the doctrine concerning the 
Logos, the personified Wisdom of God, appears in the 
writings of Philo, a learned Jew of Alexandria, who 
was contemporary with the Savior, and whose works had 
probably found admirers in those populous and cultivated 
cities of Asia Minor where John ministered. Besides, the 
title, " The Word of God," is applied to Christ, with high 
attributes of majesty, in the Apocalypse, which the Tubing- 
en critics recognize as the genuine work of this apostle. 

The omission by the other evangelists of the narrative 
respecting Lazarus, has been accounted for by the sup- 
position that he was yet alive when the earlier evangelists 
wrote, and that they feared to bring upon him that per- 
secution of which he had already been in danger. (John 
xii. 10.) We would suggest another explanation — that 
none of the disciples but John accompanied the Savior 
to Bethany, he having sent the others before to Jerusa- 
lem, while he remained with his chosen friend to visit 
the afflicted family. 

The apparent difference with regard to the Last Sup- 
per is explained by the supposition that John used the 



70 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

term " Passover," in reference not merely to the obser- 
vance of the first day, but to that of the whole festival 
season. (Lev. xxiii. 5, Q.) 

Whatever strength there may be in the arguments 
alleged, it cannot, in our opinion, compare with that de- 
rived from the spiritual character of this Gospel. If it 
is not authentic, the "moral miracle" of Christianity 
(see p. 25) is doubled. We have, then, not only to 
account for the wonderful Teacher who gave the Sermon 
on the Mount and the Parables, but for another mind, 
of genius and tenderness equal to his, who invented the 
conversation with Xicodemus (John iii.), that with the 
Samaritan woman (iv.) , the raising of Lazarus (xi.) , and 
the parting conversation with the disciples, (xiii.-xvii.) 
And this man, of glorious intellect and feeling heart, 
has left no remembrance of his name, no trace of his 
existence, except this forgery, in which he endeavors to 
palm off his own thoughts and words as those of Jesus ! 
Well mav Renan make the admission, " We have no 
example, in the apostolic world, of a forgery of this 
kind." (Life of Jesus, p. 26.) 

Section 21. Apocrypha of the New Testament. 

The endeavor has sometimes been made to depreciate 
the authentic Gospels, by representing them as of the 
same class with certain other writings, which are known 
as the "Apocrypha of the New Testament." These 
works have come down to us from an early period of 
Christian history, mostly in the Greek, but partly in the 
Arabic language. Collections of them, in the original 
languages, with Latin translations, have been published 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 71 

in Germany ; and they have also been translated into 
English. It will appear, we trust, on examination, that 
these writings, instead of diminishing, should confirm 
our confidence in the records of the Christian faith. 

We do not deny that there were other attempts, in the 
primitive age, to write the history of the Savior, besides 
those which resulted in our present Gospels. This we 
infer from the preface of Luke. (i. 1.) These accounts, 
however honestly designed, were probably from imper- 
fect information, or unskilfully put together, so that 
they fell into disuse after the publication of the authentic 
Gospels. The most important of them was the Gospel 
according to the Hebrews, if indeed this was not, as 
there is some reason for believing, the Hebrew original 
of Matthew's Gospel. This is quoted once by Clement 
of Alexandria, and twice by Origen. A Gospel accord- 
ing to the Egyptians is also mentioned ; but Clement of 
Alexandria, who refers to it, says that he had never seen 
it ; .yet his residence in Egypt, and his zeal as a scholar, 
would have made him acquainted with it if it had been 
considered of much value or authority. Neither of these 
books is included, or claimed to be included, in the col- 
lections mentioned above ; nor is either of them, as far 
as is known to scholars, now in existence. These ex- 
ceptions, if they can be considered such, hardly invali- 
date the assertion of Paley, " that, besides our Gospels 
and the Acts of the Apostles, no Christian history, 
claiming to be written by an apostle or apostolical man, 
is quoted within three hundred years after the birth of 
Christ, by any writer now extant or known ; or, if 
quoted, is not quoted without marks of censure or 
rejection." (Evidences of Christianity, Prop. L, chap, 
ix., sect. 11.) 



72 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The writings called the " Apocrypha of the Xew Tes- 
tament" are productions of various ages. But the 
earlier they are dated, the more obvious appears the 
contrast between their contents and those of the authen- 
tic Gospels. The character of the narratives may be 
fairly estimated from the following specimens : — 

" The following accounts we find in the book of Joseph 
the high priest, called by some Caiaphas. He relates 
that Jesus spoke even when he was in his cradle, and 
said to his mother, Mary, * I am Jesus, the Son of God, 
the "Word, which thou didst bring forth according to the 
declaration Of the angel Gabriel to thee ; and my Father 
hath sent me for the salvation of the world.'" (First 
Infancy, chap. i. verse 1.) 

A boy possessed with devils is cured by the touch of 
the swaddling clothes of Jesus. rt The devils began to 
come out of his mouth, and fly away in the shape of 
crows and serpents." (First Infancy, iv. 15. Chap. xi. 
of Thilo's edition, Arabic and Latin.) 

The Virgin Mary cures leprosy and other diseases 
with the water in which the child had been washed. 
(Chap. vi. and elsewhere.) A young man, who had 
been changed into a mule, is restored to his proper form 
by the child being placed upon his back. (Chap, vii.) 

Joseph, being employed to make a throne for Herod, 
makes it too narrow. Jesus, however, directs him to 
take hold of it on the one side, while himself drawing it 
on the other, and it is expanded to the proper size. 
(Chap.xvi.) 

Another time, Jesus went forth into the street, and 
a boy running by rushed upon his shoulder ; at which 
Jesus, being angry, said to him, "Thou shalt go no 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 73 

farther ; " and he instantly fell down dead. The parents 
complain to Joseph, and say, w Either teach him that he 
bless, and not curse, or else depart hence with him, for 
he kills our children." Joseph reproves Jesus, who in- 
flicts blindness on the parents who had complained of 
him. (Second Infancy, or Gospel of Thomas, chap. ii. 
Thilo's edition, iv. and v. of the Greek.) 

In the " Gospel of Xicodemus, or Acts of Pontius 
Pilate," Carinus and Leucius, sons of Simeon, rise 
from the dead, and describe to the Council of the 
Jews the transactions in the world of spirits on occa- 
sion of the death of Christ, after which they vanish. 
Their account is told to Pilate, who, Gentile as he is, is 
represented as entering into the holy place of the Temple. 
The high priests identify Jesus as the Messiah, by a 
prophecy " in the first book of the Seventy, where 
Michael, the archangel, in speaking to the third son of 
Adam, the first man, foretells that after five thousand 
five hundred years, Christ, the most beloved Son of God, 
was to come on earth." (Thilo, ch. xxviii.) Pilate gives 
an account of these occurrences to the Emperor Tibe- 
rius, who tries him at Pome for crucifying Christ, and 
condemns him to be beheaded ; but Pilate being pen- 
itent, his head is received by an angel. (Thilo, pp. 
813-816.) 

The absurdity of some of these stories, the incon- 
sistency of others with the just and loving character of 
Jesus, and the contradiction presented by the last to well- 
known facts connected with the Old Testament, with 
Jewish customs, and with the early history of Chris- 
tianity, place these narratives in strong contrast to the 
7 



74 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

genuine Gospels. They show us what those Gospels 
would have been had thev been formed bv the imainna- 
tion of the writers, instead of deriving their accounts 
from the statements of eye-witnesses. As to their origin, 
they appear to have been designed to meet from fancy 
the desires which manv felt of knowing more respecting 
the early years of Jesus, of beholding his cause trium- 
phantly vindicated before Jew and Gentile, and of possess- 
ing something i n writing from his own hand. This last 
want is met by a letter purporting to be from Jesus to 
Abjrarus, kincr of Edessa, who had invited the Savior to 
reside with him. These writings were not probably com- 
posed with the definite intention of deceiving. The 
Gospel of Xicodemus, especially, may be regarded as a 
romance of sacred history, and, as such, of some literary 
merit. 

The apocryphal Christian writings which now exist, 
and those which are lost, so far as anvthino: is known of 
them, do not contradict, in any important particular, the 
accounts given in the authentic Gospels. "Where they 
ditler, it is bv adding to the statements of the evangel- 
ists, not by giving narratives opposed to theirs, — that 
indirect opposition excepted, which results, as in the 
cases oriven above, from the writers' neglect of historic 
truth, or their inability to understand the gentle and 
merciful character of Jesus. 



EVIDENCE OF THE BECOED. 



Shctkei 22. Resglx of oub _ .utrtks kbspkct- 
:: - rzz Recoed. 

Z: : ; . then, established by sufficient evidence, that the 
four Gospels were generally received among Christians 
as correct histories of their Master, from the earliest 
age, and that no history inconsistent with theirs was 
thus received. A similar conclusion may be held with 
regard to the other books of chief importance in the 
Xew Testament, if not to all. 

This would be sufficient to entitle these books to be 
received as the basis of our Christian faith., even if ~c 
were ignorant of the names of their authors . Fot 
instance, if we are sure that the fourth Gospel contains 
a true account, it is of little importance to us whether it 
was written by the apostle John, by some of his disci- 
ples, or by othr a 

TTe have also, however, proofs of great strength, that 
rhfSr b :-:k= -.-erf :.;-e- ~ ::_: :: :Lt t^-- ~ ;-:« .:= ~v.:=e 
names they bear. (See especially the testimony of Ire- 
nams. p. 42 : the argument from the connection of the 
Gospel of Luke with the Acts and the Epistles, p. 64 : 
and that in relation to the Gospel of John, p. 66.) 

In further evidence of this, we may observe. — 

1. That, having traced these writings back to the 
apostolic age, there is no reason why we should not be- 
lieve the general voice of antiquity, which assigns them 
to certain persons then living, and most likely to be 
qualified for the task. 

. . That this testimony of antiquity is without excep- 
tion as far as regards the Gospels and the other books 



76 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of chief importance. We never find manuscripts of the 
Gospel of Matthew bearing the name of Luke, nor of 
Luke bearing that of Peter. No ancient writer asserts 
that the Gospel which now bears the name of John was 
written by any other than that apostle. If either of the 
four Gospels is wrongly assigned, it is strange that not 
the slightest trace should remain of its true author. 

The number of the witnesses is a point of great im- 
portance. If we had received the account of the life of 
Jesus from one alone, there might be a suspicion of 
fraud or delusion ; but it comes to us directly from 
four evangelists, and is confirmed to us by the agree- 
ment, expressed or implied, of the other writers of the 
New Testament. That there should be a combination 
among so many to deceive, without some one betraying 
the secret, is highly improbable. 

It may be urged as an objection to the trustworthiness 
of the Christian records, that the ancient manuscripts, 
versions, and quotations by the Fathers do not always 
agree together. There are various readings ; and these, 
it is admitted, are numbered by thousands. But it is to 
be remembered, that nearly all of these are of very 
slight importance. They arose of necessity in ages 
when the only way of multiplying copies of books was 
with the pen. Among them all there are very few that 
possess any doctrinal importance, and none that disturb 
at all the great facts of the Christian revelation. 

Are these records, then, worthy of our reliance? 

They are, if any human testimony can be. Suppose 
that we had four memoirs of the campaigns of Wash- 
ington, two by officers in command under him, and the 
other two by persons in immediate communication with 



EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 77 

such officers ; what more authentic account of those 
campaigns could we desire? 

It is safe to conclude that no objection would be made 
to the reception of the accounts these books contain, by 
any person acquainted with the evidence which supports 
them, but for the miraculous character of their state- 
ments. But many modern writers, assuming that mira- 
cles are impossible, refuse their assent to the narratives 
of the Gospels, in whole or in part, on that account.' 

This is the position of those who in our own age have 
endeavored to remove the miraculous element from the 
Christian history. It is a position to which they have 
been led by the philosophical tendencies of the age, both 
as connected with the study of outward nature and with 
metaphysical investigation. 

The researches of physical science have given to those 
familiar with them a deep conviction of the stability of 
the laws of nature. The common idea of a miracle, 
therefore, as an event in which all laws of nature are set 
aside, has been considered inadmissible ; and it has not 
always been sufficiently kept in mind that there may be 
other and higher laws of nature than those with which 
we are familiar. (See Section 2.) 

In metaphysical philosophy, the German mind has, 
for a century past, been more active than that of any 
other nation. In Germany, a system of philosophy has 
prevailed, known as the Transcendental, and illustrated 
by the great names of Kant, Fichte, and many others. 
Of this system it may be sufficient to point out one dis- 
tinguishing trait — that it looks for proof of truth within, 
and not without ; to the soul of man, not to the external 
world. Few will deny the nobleness of the direction 



78 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

thus given to investigation ; few perhaps will deny that 
the defenders of Christianity had hitherto been too lim- 
ited in their efforts — laboring to prove, almost exclu- 
sively by outward testimony, that which bore the stamp 
of heaven in its intrinsic excellence. But the transition 
is easy from one extreme to its opposite ; and the scholars 
of Germany, in their homage to the light within, were 
tempted to turn with disgust from the idea of external 
proof, of miracle, and even of revelation. 

From these causes, many recent writers, instead of 
examining whether the miracles are proved, declare or 
assume, at the outset, that they are incapable of proof. 
This fact is of importance to observe, for it shows that 
their theories are not the conclusions of unbiassed minds, 
from fair and thorough investigation of the record, but 
ingenious attempts to turn the Gospel accounts from 
their obvious meaning, or to undermine their authority, 
in favor of a preconceived idea. Thus, Strauss says, 
" No just perception of the true nature of history is pos- 
sible without a perception of the inviolability of the chain 
of finite causes, and of the impossibility of miracles." 
(Life of Jesus, § 13, vol. i. p. 64, English translation.) 
Kenan protests against the charge of " mutilating the 
facts in the name of theory ; " but he still reaches the 
conclusion, previous to the examination of the New Tes- 
tament miracles, " that a supernatural narration cannot 
be accepted as such." (pp. 43, 45.) 



MODERN SPECULATIONS. 79 



MODERN SPECULATIONS. 

Section 23. Theories that suppose the Gospel 
Narratives correct. 

\Ve will now present a brief view of the principal 
classes of attempts that have been made to account for, 
or to remove, the miraculous element in Christianity. 

\Ye have first to name those theories that proceed on 
the supposition that the Gospel narratives are substan- 
tially correct. Among these we must class an explana- 
tion of the miracles which admits them to have taken 
place as narrated, and receives the testimony they bear 
to the holiness of Jesus, but seeks to ascertain a law of 
nature in conformity to which they took place. Such 
has been the effort of Dr. Furness, in his " Remarks on 
the Four Gospels," and subsequent works, ascribing 
many of these wonders to the natural influence of a 
most holy and majestic being over the minds of those 
whom he addressed, and, through their minds, over 
their bodily organs. .He carries this view so far as to 
conceive that it will explain even the raising of Lazarus, 
the commanding voice of Jesus being heard in the spirit 
world. (Remarks, p. 179, 180.) There are, however, 
well-attested miracles, to which this theory is obviously 
inapplicable (see Matt. viii. 27 ; xiv. 25 ; xxi. 19 ; 
John ii. 9) ; and even where it is applied, the effect 
asserted transcends, not only in degree, but in kind, the 
natural influence of one mind over another in any case 



80 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

within human experience. " Since the world began was 
it not heard that any man," by the natural power of a 
virtuous character and a strong faith, " opened the eyes 
of one that was born blind," much less raised the dead 
to life. (John ix. 32.) Our dissent from this theory 
does not prevent us from doing justice to the distin- 
guished ability, and the reverent and loving spirit, in 
which it has been advocated. 

Some German writers, known as the "Naturalists," 
of whom Professor Paulus is the best known, admitting 
the literal truth of the accounts given by the Evangelists, 
represent those accounts as describing events in which 
there was nothing supernatural. To show the character 
of their explanations a few examples will be sufficient. 

In Matt. xvii. 27, Jesus directs Peter, "Go thou to 
the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first 
cometh up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou 
shalt find a piece of money." According to Paulus, the 
only purpose of opening the fish's mouth was to take 
out the hook ; and the money was " found " by selling 
the fish. (Paulus, Life of Jesus, § 136.) 

The raising of Lazarus is thus explained : Jesus, 
from his knowledge of diseases, is convinced that Laza- 
rus could not have really died. He therefore goes to the 
tomb, and causes the stone to be removed ; then, looking 
into the tomb, he perceives that his impression is correct, 
for the supposed corpse begins to move. He calls out, 
therefore, " Lazarus, come forth ! " And the accidental 
resuscitation of Lazarus has the appearance of being the 
result of that command. (§ 151.) 

In explanation of the ascension of Jesus, as described 
Acts i. 9-11, we are told that Jesus, in taking leave of 



MODERN SPECULATIONS. 81 

his disciples, removed himself farther from them. Here- 
upon, a cloud or mist interposed itself between them, 
and concealed Jesus from their sight — a result which, 
on the assurance of two unknown men, they regarded as 
a reception of Jesus into heaven. (§ 215.) 

"In the supposition that the two individuals clothed 
in white apparel were real men, Paulus only disguises a 
final and strongly-marked essay of the opinion espoused 
by Bahrdt and Venturini, that several epochs in the life 
of Jesus, especially after his crucifixion, were brought 
about by the agency of secret colleagues. Shall we, 
with Bahrdt, dream of an Essene lodge into which he 
retired after the completion of his work? and with 
Brennecke appeal, in proof that Jesus long continued 
silently to work for the welfare of mankind, to his ap- 
pearance for the purpose of the conversion of Paul ? Or 
shall we, with Paulus, suppose that shortly after the last 
interview, the body of Jesus sank beneath the injuries it 
had received?" From such modes of representation, 
"a sound judgment must turn away with aversion." 
(Strauss, Life of Jesus, hi., v., § 142; first German 
edition, § 138.) 

It is only necessary to add to the condemnation so 
justly passed by Strauss on the conjectures of his prede- 
cessors, that if Jesus claimed to have raised Lazarus 
from the dead, when the occurrence was only a fortunate 
accident, or if he deceived his disciples by the aid of 
unknown confederates, his conduct was that of a hypo- 
critical juggler, utterly inconsistent, therefore, with the 
principles he proclaimed, and with that intellectual and 
moral power which has left so deep an impression on the 
history of the world. 



82 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Section 24. Theories supposing Fraud. 

Suppositions have been advanced by some writers, 
more distinctly admitting the idea of fraud, either on the 
part of Jesus himself or on that of others. 

Renan conceives the character of wonder-worker to 
have been forced on Jesus by the credulity of those 
around, rather than willingly assumed (Life of Jesus, 
pp. 235-239) ; thus excusing his deception at the expense 
of his firmness and good sense. In one remarkable 
instance, however, he considers Jesus to have been him- 
self deceived. The raising of Lazarus is supposed to 
have been a scene, arranged between Lazarus and his 
sisters, to delude not only the people, but Jesus himself, 
with the idea that a miracle was performed ; aud this 
impious fraud is represented as wrought from enthusiastic 
love towards the Master upon whom it was practised, 
(p. 305.) 

It is, however, with regard to the resurrection of the 
Savior that the boldest and most ingenious speculations 
have been employed. It was indeed necessary to the 
opponents of miracle, that, if possible, some natural 
explanation should be found for this great event ; for, as 
we have seen already (section 10) , it is sustained by the 
most ample evidence, and is in fact implied in the very 
existence of the Christian church. Two ways were sug- 
gested to account for it. f ' The cultivated intellect of the 
present day," says Strauss, " has very decidedly stated 
the following dilemma : either Jesus was not really dead, 
or he did not really rise again. Rationalism has' princi- 
pally given its adherence to the former opinion." 



MODERN SPECULATIONS. 83 

The death of Jesus, consequently, is explained by 
many writers as having been merely apparent — a swoon 
or catalepsy, from which he recovered, and appeared 
before the disciples as if risen from the dead. In sup- 
port of this opinion, the fact is urged, that cases have 
been known in which crucifixion did not produce death ; 
and reference has been made to an instance mentioned 
by Josephus, and to tortures voluntarily endured by cer- 
tain fanatics in France. In all these cases, however, 
the victims were taken from the cross for the purpose of 
saving them, and restorative means applied ; so that they 
would furnish no ground to infer the restoration of Jesus, 
unless we admit the use of similar means in his case. 
By whom, then, were these means applied? And on 
whom is the deception of the world through so many 
aires to be charged? 

The supposition of Bahrdt is, that "Jesus, seeing no 
other way of purifying the prevalent Messianic idea from 
the admixture of material and political hopes, exposed 
himself to crucifixion, but, in so doing, relied on the 
possibility of a speedy removal from the cross by early 
bowing his head, and of being afterwards restored by 
the medical skill of some among his secret colleagues," — 
those imagined Essene confederates referred to in a pre- 
vious extract (p. 81), — "so as to inspirit the people at 
the same time by the appearance of a resurrection." 
" Others have ascribed to his disciples a preconceived plan 
of producing apparent death by means of a potion." 
(Strauss, Part III., chap. iv. § 140.) Such was the 
theory of Schuster, who conceived also that the awaking 
of Jesus was aided, and the stone removed from the 
mouth of the tomb, by an earthquake and lightning, 



84 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

which fortunately occurred at the moment they were 
needed, (See Strauss, as above.) 

Surpassing even these theories in extravagance, if that 
be possible, is the suggestion of a writer in the Westmin- 
ster Review (for Jan., 1858), that the person by whom 
the crucifixion was prevented from being fatal was Pilate 
himself! That magistrate, it is said, had shown an 
earnest desire to save the life of Jesus ; and when he 
finally yielded to the importunity of the Jews, he re- 
solved to do secretly what he dared not do openly. He 
gave private orders, therefore, that the legs of Jesus 
should not be broken, and that the body should be taken 
from the cross before life was extinct. It is not explained 
how one of Pilate's soldiers dared to thrust a spear into 
the side of the prisoner whom his master meant to save ; 
nor how that thrust, which entered the pericardium, as 
appeared from the effusion of water with the blood, 
failed to produce death. (See John xix. 34, 35, and 
commentators on the passage.) 

On these strange fancies, we may briefly remark, that 
the slow recovery which alone would be possible from 
natural causes, after the linoerino^ torture had almost 
extinguished life, is not consistent with the accounts 
given of the Savior's appearance to the women, and to 
his disciples, and in particular with the circumstances of 
the walk to Emmaus. (See Luke xxiv. 13-43 ; John 
xx. 14-17, 19.) 

We must believe too, upon these suppositions, either 
that Jesus thought he had been really dead when he had 
not, which is inconsistent with the wisdom which he 
always showed, or that he was guilty of an atrocious 
fraud upon his followers, which is inconsistent alike with 



MODERN SPECULATIONS. 85 

his instructions and his example. (See Mark xvi. 14 ; 
Luke xxiv. 26, 46 ; John xx. 27, 29.) 

Renan, taking the other alternative of the dilemma, 
believes that Jesus actually died on the cross, and 
ascribes the story of his resurrection principally to " the 
strong imagination of Mary Magdalene." As two of the 
Gospels state that her report of the resurrection was at 
first not credited , and as all agree in mentioning other 
appearances of the Savior, besides the testimony of Paul 
to the same effect, we cannot acquiesce in this summary 
reduction of the number of witnesses. (See Mark xvi. 
11, Luke xxiv. 11, and the accounts of the resurrection 
generally; also 1 Cor. xv. 5-8.) 

Section 25. The Mythical Theory. 

Many probably content themselves with distinguishing 
between the natural and the supernatural narratives in 
the Gospels ; receiving the former and rejecting the latter, 
simply on the ground that the former are credible and 
the latter incredible. 

But this position cannot consistently be held, since 
both descriptions of narratives rest on the same testi- 
mony. If that testimony is sufficient, we must receive 
the miracles ; if the miracles are pronounced false, the 
testimony of those who record them is discredited, even 
when they relate events that were not miraculous. If 
John was competent to testify to the conversation of 
Jesus with the sisters of Lazarus, which he heard, he 
was competent to testify to the raising of Lazarus, which 
he saw. 

Again, in the Gospels, the miraculous and the spir- 
8 



86 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

itual or didactic are often interwoven in such a manner 
that they cannot properly be separated. For instance, 
in the narrative just referred to, if we suppose the 
Savior only to have instructed Martha that her brother 
should rise again (John xi. 23), and to have declared, 
" I am the resurrection and the life," without the miracle, 
we leave the account unfinished, and several sentences 
of it unexplained. (See verses 6, 11, 23-26, 41, 42.) 
The touching incidents and instructions after the resur- 
rection are evident fictions, unless the resurrection had 
taken place. (See Luke xxiv. ; John xx., xxi.) 

The explanation of Dr. D. F. Strauss, known as the 
Mythical Theory, was not, however, original with him. 
It had been applied, by many before his time, to portions 
alike of the Old Testament and of the New. But by 
him it was developed into a system, and extended, with 
cold, unsparing sagacity, to every leading incident in the 
life of Christ. The idea it expresses is, that the stories 
respecting Jesus arose without intentional deception on 
the part of any one, partly from exaggerations of actual 
occurrences, and partly from supposing things to have 
really taken place which seemed appropriate to his char- 
acter, either from the declarations of the prophets, the 
popular expectation among the Jews, or any other cause. 
These myths or stories Strauss supposes to have been 
collected by the Evangelists in good faith, and published 
by them with the belief that they contained the real his- 
tory of Jesus. But all that is miraculous being set aside 
as impossible, and events not miraculous being regarded 
as mythical, wherever any plausible motive could be 
assigned for their fabrication, there remains little that 
can be identified as undoubtedly belonging to Jesus. 



MODERN SPECULATIONS. 87 

With regard to this theory, we may observe, — 

1. That it is inconsistent with the evidence presented 
above ; proving that the Gospels were written by their 
reputed authors, who were well qualified to declare the 
truth respecting the history of Jesus. 

2. Fabulous stories are the growth of a very different 
period from that in which Jesus lived. They arise in the 
ages of dim tradition, preceding the researches of the 
historian ; but the period of the Savior was an age of 
intelligence, and of literary cultivation. 

3. Fabulous stories, under the most favorable circum- 
stances, are of slow growth. The period allowed by 
Strauss in his original work, of about thirty years, is alto- 
gether too short for their production, and even the longer 
time allowed in his recent volume appears inadequate. 

4. If the supposed myths were founded on Jewish 
expectations of the Messiah, they would have invested 
Jesus with some form of temporal royalty. On the con- 
trary, we see him constantly refusing such distinction. 
(Luke xii. 14; John vi. 15; xviii. 36.) 

5. The childish stories of the " Gospels of the Infancy," 
and the unhistorical acknowledgment of Jesus by Jews 
and Romans in the " Gospel of Nicodemus," show us 
what our Gospels would have been had they been written 
as Strauss imagines. 

6. The Savior had companions and followers, or his 
religion would have perished with him. Did these 
companions originate these fabulous stories ? This is in- 
credible, for they were better informed. Did they, then, 
leave no authentic account of their Master, either in 
writing or by tradition, so that all Christendom received 
as true the accounts given by persons entirely unau- 
thorized ? 



88 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

7. It would have been the interest of the enemies of 
Jesus, no less than of his friends, to detect the error or 
the fraud that substituted a mythical and miraculous life 
of him for the truth. They are, however, not merely 
silent with regard to any error or fraud of the kind, but 
by explaining his miracles as wrought by magic, they 
imply an admission of the authenticity of the books that 
record them. 

8. The Gentile Christians had received their faith from 
some early followers of Jesus. Would they have after- 
wards accepted as true an account of their Master's life 
made up not from actual facts, but from Jewish fancies? 

9. The Christian religion, whether divinely revealed 
or not, is a sublime and beautiful whole, the representa- 
tion of a perfect character, and an incomparable system 
of morals. Was this system, which has been the admi- 
ration of the world for ages, formed by chance — a mere 
farrago of idle rumors ? 

10. In his "Life of Jesus for the German People," 
published in 1864, Dr. Strauss has modified his mythical 
theory to a considerable extent, in conformity with the 
views of the " Tubingen School," Dr. F. C. Baur, and 
others. He now regards the Gospels as having been 
composed later than he at first admitted ; that of Mat- 
thew the earliest, Luke before A. D. 135, Mark after- 
wards, and John about A. D. 150, thus leaving a 
longer time for the production of mythical stories. He 
also admits, to some extent, conscious fiction on the part 
of the writers, at least of the author of the fourth Gos- 
pel. At the same time he recognizes, more fully than 
before, something distinct in the person and teaching of 
Jesus. He regards him as a most pure and holy being, 



MODERN SPECULATIONS. 89 

combining the best influences of all the world's previous 
culture, and excited to noble self-devotion by those pas- 
sages in the prophets that speak of a suffering Messiah. 

Upon these modifications of his system, and upon the 
views of the remarkable school on which they are found- 
ed, it is not necessary, in this brief volume, to say more 
than has already been observed. (See p. 68.) The genu- 
ineness and 'authenticity of the Gospels being proved, we 
have all that is needed. The change of opinion in Dr. 
Strauss prepares us for further changes ; and we trust 
that he or his successors may, ere long, be led to 
acknowledge in Jesus, not only the providential, but the 
divinely commissioned Leader of mankind. 

The argument against the mythical theory is thus ex- 
pressed in the same discourse, from winch an extract 
has already been given (see p. 25) : — 

R The legendary and the mythical history of Greece 
and Rome cannot be traced up, in written form, to 
within five hundred years of the time to which the 
events are ascribed. But here is the history of our 
Lord, which, if mythical, is the most wonderful of all 
myths, distinctly traced to four writers, who were living 
at the time, and who wrote and published their tales 
during the lifetime of many eye-witnesses of Jesus's min- 
istry — a history perfectly self-consistent in its details, 
filled with miracle, and crowning them all with the 
miracle of a character claiming to be exalted in a 
degree hitherto unconceived ; claiming to be the Son 
of God ; claiming to be the future Judge of the 
world ; the Lord, not only of life and death, but of the 
living and the dead ; the arbiter of our eternal destiny ; 
and this claim supported by a character so spotless that 
8* 



90 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

it has commanded the adoring veneration of all men from 
that day to this. And will any man attempt to persuade 
me that this wonderful, this unapproachable majesty and 
beauty, this self-consistent portrait of the Son of God, 
living and teaching and dying, in Galilee and Judea, 
was the creation of rumor, and popular fancy, and reli- 
gious aspiration, created and made a living reality to 
thousands of believers, during the short space of thirty 
years intervening between the crucifixion of Jesus and 
the publication of his biographies ? I should regard the 
attempt as almost an insult to my understanding. As 
reasonably might one attempt to persuade me that the 
strength of will and inflexibility of purpose ascribed to 
the old hero who occupied the executive chair of our 
nation thirty years ago was the pure creation of fancy 
during my own lifetime." 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 91 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

Section 26. General View. 

The New Testament is the foundation of the faith of 
Christians. The Old Testament is of value to us as 
containing the records of God's dealings with man, in a 
revelation preliminary to that by Jesus Christ. It is 
sustained by the testimony of the New, and yields it 
support in turn. 

It is sustained by the testimony of the New, because, — 

1. Our Savior and his apostles frequently quote or 
refer to the Old Testament as of divine authority. (See 
Matt. xxii. 43 ; xxvi. 24 ; Luke xviii. 31 ; John v. 39.) 

2. The position which Jesus claimed, as the Christ, or 
the Messiah, was that predicted by the Old Testament 
prophets. 

The Old Testament sustains the New, — 

1. By direct prophecies, which received their accom- 
plishment in Christ. 

2. By the proofs which the Old exhibits of divine 
origin and authority for the religion it makes known, 
joined to the indications it gives of being imperfect and 
temporary, and therefore preparatory to a more perma- 
nent sys.tem. 

The Old Testament presents a system of faith and 
morals not unworthy of a divine origin. 

1 . Its first principle is the Unity of God ; and this 
is asserted in marked contrast to the idolatry which 



92 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

prevailed throughout the world, and especially in Egypt, 
the country from which the Israelites came forth. (Gen. 
i. ; Deut. vi. 4; 1 Chron. xvi. 26.) 

2. In equally strong contrast with Egyptian supersti- 
tion, which worshipped its divinities under bestial forms, 
it forbade the use of any visible representation of the 
Deity. (Ex. xx. 4.) 

3. The very name which it gave to the Supreme, 
Jehovah, signifies " He is," or " the Self-existent." (See 
Ex. iii. 15, in the original, where the divine name is 
evidently the verb of existence in the third person, as in 
verse 14 it is in the first person.) 

4. The invisible and spiritual nature of God, and his 
superiority to human wants or changes, are strongly set 
forth in such passages as Deut. iv. 12-26 ; Ps. 1. 8-13 ; 
Isaiah i. 10-17 ; Mai. iii. 6. 

5. The moral attributes of God — his justice, mercy, 
and beneficence — are declared in numerous passages, 
such as Ex. xxxiv. 6,7; Ps. ciii. His power and wis- 
dom in creating, and his providence in sustaining the 
universe, are constantly acknowledged. (See Gen. i. ; 
Ps. civ.) 

6. The laws given to the Israelites are of consummate 
wisdom. The Ten Commandments, especially, form a 
most comprehensive code, which still, after the lapse of 
thousands of years, and the increased light given by 
Christianity, retains the admiration and reverence of 
mankind. (Ex. xx. ; Deut. v. 6-21.) 

7. The laws relating to the treatment by the people 
of their poorer brethren were most wise and humane. 
(See Deut. xxiv. 6-22.) And although benevolence 
towards foreigners was not so strongly inculcated, — the 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 93 

law of universal brotherhood being the especial glory of 
the Christian revelation, — yet in some passages the Old 
Testament makes a near approach to it. (Ex. xxii. 
21; xxiii. 9.) 

8. Even those defective institutions which, in that 
early stage of human progress, it was thought best not 
to prohibit entirely, were placed under restraints which 
greatly diminished their evils, and prepared the way for 
their entire removal. Thus it was with divorce (Deut. 
xxiv. 1—4; Mark x. 4, 5), with private revenge (Num. 
xxxv. 9-34), and with slavery. (Ex. xxi. 1-6, 16, 20, 
26, 27.) 

9. In contrast to the surrounding idolatry, the wor- 
ship of the Hebrews was not marked either with cruelty 
or impurity ; and their religion was free from the super- 
stitions connected with charms, incantations, omens, and 
astrology. 

10. The Old Testament is replete with passages of 
unrivalled sublimity and beauty, especially when it dwells 
upon the majesty of God, and the wisdom manifested in 
his works. (Ps. xxiii., xxix., civ. ; Job xxviii., xxxix. ; 
Is. ii. 10-22; xl. 21-31; Jer. iv. 23-26.) 

Section 27. Difficulties of the Old Testament. 

Much has been said and written with regard to the 
obscurities and difficulties of the Old Testament. On 
this subject we offer these remarks : — 

1. Obscurities and difficulties are to be expected in 
ancient documents, from the great difference in thought 
and manner of expression between far distant periods of 
human development.- 



94 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

2. It was customary with ancient writers to relate 
occurrences in a dramatic manner, giving not merely the 
result of a conversation, but imagining the very words that 

. might have been used. (See the remarks on the language 
of Herodotus, in Macaulay's Essay on History.) This 
peculiarity of ancient writing will explain many passages 
in the Old Testament, in which the Almighty is repre- 
sented as speaking, and especially as conversing with 
human beings. (Gen. i. 3; ii. 16; Ex. xxxii. 7—14.) 

3. In many of the narratives of the Old Testament, 
the account rests, not on the authority of the sacred his- 
torian, but on that of some earlier writer, or of tradition. 
Thus the occurrences recorded in Genesis could not be 
related by Moses from personal knowledge ; and he, if 
he was the historian, is therefore not accountable for 
anything more than a faithful use of the materials he 
possessed. The account in Joshua x. 12—14 is there 
spoken of as derived from the Book of Jasher, which 
was apparently a collection of poems. (Compare 
2 Sam. i. 18.) 

4. If errors in astronomy, geology, or any other 
branch of science are discovered, it is to be remembered 
that the object of a revelation was not to teach men those 
sciences, but their own relation to their Creator. 

5 . If we find much to condemn in the conduct of per- 
sons who are yet mentioned with approval in the Old 
Testament, we must remember that they may have been 
approved for one quality, though in other respects very 
deficient. Thus David is spoken of, in 1 Sam. xiii. 
14, as a " man after God's own heart " in the one respect 
of faithfulness to the divine commands in the administra- 
tion of public affairs. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 95 

6. In judging such characters, we have also to bear in 
mind the lower standard of morals in their age, and the 
temptations to which they were peculiarly exposed. Thus, 
to recur to the instance just spoken of, David is to be 
judged, not by the modern and Christian standard, but 
as compared with men of his time, and subject, like him, 
to the temptations arising from the possession of despotic 
power. 

7. If the sentiment of the historian himself appear 
incorrect, we must remember that good, and even in- 
spired men, who lived before the time of Christ, had not 
that full view of duty which he afterwards communi- 
cated. (Matt. xi. 11.) To suppose that the most 
gifted of the prophets anticipated all that Christ had to 
teach would be to make Christ's teaching superfluous. 

8. Even if doubt were cast upon some of the Old Tes- 
tament books, as regards their genuineness or authen- 
ticity, such doubt would not seriously affect the claims 
of the Jewish religion to divine authority, and still less 
those of Christianity. The great facts would still remain 
of the Israelites' rescue from Egyptian bondage, and of 
their maintaining for centuries the worship of the One 
True God, in a world elsewhere filled with idolatry. 

9. The free investigations of recent critics, while, as 
has been seen, they do not destroy the evidence on which 
the Jewish religion rests, sometimes incidentally remove 
objections against it. (See Colenso, "The Pentateuch 
and Book of Joshua," Part I. section 172.) 

10. There appears in some writers a disposition to 
represent the Jewish religion as on a level with the hea- 
thenism of surrounding nations. Thus the impression is 



96 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

given that the Jews regarded Jehovah as the God of 
their own nation, not the God of all mankind, in con- 
tradiction to the account in Gen. i., which represents 
him as the Creator of all, and numerous other passages. 
(See Deut. xxxii. 8 ; 2 Kings xix. 17-19 ; Ps. xcvi. 5 ; 
Isa. lxvi. 18—21.) In the same spirit, the attempt has 
been made, from Gen. xxii., to prove that the religion 
of the Hebrews sanctioned human sacrifices. As the 
sacrifice was in that case forbidden, the inference should 
be precisely the opposite. 

We conclude this section with the following tribute to 
the excellence of the Hebrew system, by an eminent 
writer, who did not acknowledge its divine authority : 
"This must be confessed, that under the guidance of 
divine Providence, the great and beautiful doctrine of 
one God seems verv earlv embraced bv the great Jewish 
lawgiver, incorporated into his national legislation, de- 
fended with rigorous enactions, and slowlv cdmmuni- 
cated to the world. At our day it is difficult to under- 
stand the service rendered to the human race by the 
niisjhtv soul of Moses, and that a thousand years before 
Anaxagoras. His name is ploughed into the history of 
the world. His influence can never die. It must have 
been a vast soul, endowed with moral and religious 
genius to a degree extraordinary among men, which at 
that early age could attempt to found a state on the doc- 
trine and worship of one God." (Parker's Discourse of 
Eeligion, p. 59.) 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 97 



Section 28. Evidence for the Old Testament. 

The books of the Old Testament are sustained, in re- 
gard to their genuineness and authenticity, by internal and 
external evidence, as are those of the New Testament. 

I. The external evidence is, — 

1. The testimony of the Jewish nation, by which these 
books have been for ages acknowledged and valued, 
as containing the ancient records of their race, and the 
history of divine communications made to them. 

They have, in fact, been regarded with a veneration, 
and preserved with a care, which may appear excessive 
and superstitious ; great attention being paid to the 
slightest minutiae of spelling and punctuation, the tran- 
scribers not venturing even to correct obvious errors in 
these respects, as they supposed that every variation was 
intended to indicate some mystery. 

2. The Christian Scriptures, even if considered merely 
as works dating from the early ages of Christianity, 
prove, by numerous references and quotations, the exist- 
ence of the Old Testament at that time, and substantially 
in the same form as at present. 

3. Josephus, a Jewish commander and writer, who 
was taken prisoner by the Romans about A. D. 68, and 
afterwards received into favor by them, gives a history 
of his nation, and other writings, which are founded 
on the Old Testament, and constantly corroborate its 
accounts. 

4. Similar testimony is given, though to a less extent, 
by Philo, a learned Jew of Alexandria, about the time 
of our Savior. 

9 



98 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

5. The Apocryphal books, written mostly by Alexan- 
drian Jews, shortly before the Christian era, testify, by 
frequent references and constant implication, to the exist- 
ence of the Old Testament writings, and their reception 
as of the highest authority among the nation. 

6. The Samaritans, a race closely allied to the Jews, 
and still existing, though in very scanty numbers, con- 
firm the Old Testament accounts by their traditions ; and 
particularly by their possessing copies of the Pentateuch, 
or first five books of the Bible, in Hebrew, but written 
in peculiar characters, different from the common Hebrew 
letters, and supposed by some to be more ancient. The 
testimony of the Samaritans is the more valuable, as the 
jealousy which existed for centuries between them and 
the Jews would have rendered it impossible for any 
document of recent origin to be imposed upon them by 
their neighbors and rivals. 

7. Various testimonies from heathen writers, and from 
ancient inscriptions, confirm statements of the Old Tes- 
tament with regard to historical events. This descrip- 
tion of evidence has been well exhibited in Rawlinson's 
"Bampton Lectures" (London, 1859), from which the 
following statements are selected : — 

"Hecatasus of Abdera, Manetho, Lysimachus of Alex- 
andria, Eupolemus, Tacitus, Juvenal, Longinus, ascribe 
to Moses the institution of that code of laws by which 
the Jews were distinguished from other nations ; and the 
majority distinctly note that he committed his laws to 
writing." Of these, the first two were contemporary 
with Alexander the Great, in the fourth century before 
Christ. Longinus does not mention Moses by name, 
but as w the legislator of the Jews," quoting Gen. i. 3 



THE OLD TESTABIENT. 99 

as an instance of sublimity. (Rawlinson, pp. 43, 
329-331.) 

In the Bhagavat, an ancient Hindoo poem, the Lord 
of the universe speaks thus to Satiavrata : " In seven 
days from the present time, O thou tamer of enemies, 
the three worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death ; 
but in the midst of the destroying waves, a large vessel, 
sent by me for thy use, shall stand before thee. Then 
shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the variety of 
seeds, and accompanied by seven saints, encircled by 
pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the spacious 
ark, and continue in it, secure from the flood, on one 
immense ocean without light, except the radiance of thy 
holy companions." (p. 344.) 

A similar account is given by Berosus, the Chaldean 
historian, of Xisuthrus, in which the incident of the 
sending forth of birds is related, as in Gen. viii. (p. 63. ) 

Manetho, the Egyptian historian, and Berosus, the 
Chaldean, present records of the ancient dynasties that 
were said to have governed their respective countries ; 
and while they ascend to an antiquity far beyond that 
recorded in the Bible, this relates alone to a period of 
fabulous gods and heroes. When they reach the time 
of legitimate history, their dates correspond nearly with 
those of the Hebrew Scriptures, (pp. 57—60.) 

Three ancient authors, Moses of Chorene, Procopius, 
and Suidas, relate that there existed in their times, at 
Tingis, or Tangiers, in Africa, an ancient inscription, to 
the effect that the inhabitants were descendants of those 
fugitives who were driven from the land of Canaan by 
Joshua, the son of Nun, the plunderer, (pp. 91, 92.) 

Nicolaus of Damascus, the friend of Augustus Caesar, 



100 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

gives, from the records of his native city, an account of 
the war of the ancient king, Hadad, with David, king of 
Judea, confirming the account in 2 Sam. viii. 5, 6. (p. 95.) 

In 1 Kings xvi. 31, we are told that Ahab "took to 
wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zido- 
nians." In the Tyrian history of Menander we are told 
that Eithobalus, priest of Ashteroth, became king of 
Tyre by murdering his predecessor, at a time which ex- 
actly agrees with this statement. We are also told that, 
during the reign of this prince, a remarkable drought 
occurred in Phoenicia, which continued for a year. (See 
1 Kings xvii. 1 ; xviii. 1-5 ; Rawlinson, p. 127.) The 
priestly office held by Eithobalus, and the crime by which 
he gained his power, coincide with the blending of idola- 
trous fanaticism and bloody ambition in his daughter 
Jezebel and his granddaughter Athaliah. (1 Kings 
xviii. 4 ; xxi. 5-15 ; 2 Kings viii. 18, 26 ; xi. 1, 18.) 

The scriptural accounts of Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 
xxiii. 29-35; Jer. xlvi. 2), and Pharaoh Hophra (Jer. 
xliv. 30), are confirmed by Manetho and Herodotus, 
(pp. 148, 149.) 

Events in sacred history are also confirmed in a very 
interesting manner by the recently deciphered inscrip- 
tions on the monuments of Egypt, and on those which 
have been discovered at Nineveh and other Assyrian cities. 

The conquest of Rehoboam by Shishak, king of 
Egypt (1 Kings xiv. 25, 26), "is found to have been 
commemorated by Shishak on the outside of the great 
temple at Karnac ; and here, in a long list of captured 
towns and districts, which Shishak boasts of having: 
added to his dominions, occurs the 'Melchi Yudah,' or 
kingdom of Judah." (pp. 125, 126.) 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 101 

<f The separate existence of the two kingdoms of Israel 
and Judah is abundantly confirmed by the Assyrian in- 
scriptions. Kings of each country occur in the accounts 
which the great Assyrian monarchs have left us of their 
conquests, the names being always capable of easy iden- 
tification with those recorded in Scripture, and occurring 
in the chronological order which is there given." (p. 125. ) 

The reign of Ben-hadad at Damascus, his military 
power, and even the peculiar construction of his armies 
(1 Kings xx. 1, 25), are illustrated by Assyrian in- 
scriptions, (pp. 130, 407.) On the same monument 
Hazael appears as successor to Ben-hadad ; and Jehu is 
mentioned as kino- of Israel at the same date. 

The intervention of Tiglath-Pileser in behalf of Ahaz 
against the united forces of Syria and Israel (2 Kings 
xvi. 7) is confirmed in the same manner. The erection 
by Ahaz of a Syrian, or rather Assyrian, altar at Jeru- 
salem (verse 10), is explained by the inscriptions, from 
which it appears that it was customary to require subject 
nations thus to acknowledge the gods of the conquerors. 
(p. 136.) 

The subjugation of Hezekiah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 
xviii. 13) is confirmed by a long inscription, agreeing 
with the scriptural account in every particular, except 
that it states the tribute in silver at a higher amount. 
That in gold is precisely the same — thirty talents. 
(p. 141.) 

We are told, in 2 Chron. xxiii. 11, that the king of 
Assyria took Manasseh king of Judah captive, and car- 
ried him to Babylon. This statement appears strange, 
as Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and we know 
Babylon in connection with a later empire. But the 
9* 



102 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

inscriptions show us that Esar-haddon, the monarch in 
question, and he only of all the Assyrian kings, built a 
palace at Babylon, and occasionally held his court there. 
Manasseh is mentioned among his subject princes. 
(p. 145.) 

The king of Egypt, whose name is given as So in our 
translation, would, with different vowel-points, which are 
a comparatively modern addition, be recognized as Sevech. 
This monarch appears both in Manetho and in the Egyp- 
tian inscriptions, and his connection with Assyrian history 
» is confirmed by the discovery of his seal at Koyunjik, in 
Assyria. (2 Kings xvii. 4. Kawlinson, p. 147.) 

In Daniel v., Belshazzar is named as the last king 
of Babylon, and as having been slain when the city 
was taken by the Medes and Persians. This state- 
ment long appeared to be contrary to that of profane 
historians, who named Nabonadius as the last king, and 
declared that he was absent from Babylon at the time of 
its occupation by the enemy, and that he was afterwards 
taken prisoner, and treated with generosity. But in 
1854 the discovery was made, from inscriptions at 
Mugheir, the ancient "Ur of the Chaldees," that 
Nabonadius had associated with him in the sovereignty 
a son whose name corresponds with the account in 
Daniel, (pp. 168-170.) 

II. The Internal Evidence of the Old Testament is 
found in the agreement of the statements and references 
there with what is known from other sources of the his- 
tory, geography, and antiquities of Palestine and neigh- 
boring countries ; in coincidences between the books, 
especially where they are obviously undesigned ; and in 
the general simple, truthful style of the narrative. For 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 103 

example, the history of the deliverance from Egypt, and 
of the wanderings in the wilderness, exhibits a perfect 
acquaintance on the part of the writer with the geogra- 
phy of the region where the scene is laid ; so that the 
route of the Israelites may be readily traced by the trav- 
eller. The Red Sea, at the point where the Israelites 
are described to have crossed, is a narrow and shallow 
sound, where the concurrence of a strong wind and an 
ebb tide might facilitate such a passage. 

Much of the history is given in two accounts, the 
books of Chronicles confirming the statements in those 
of Samuel and Kings. 

There are numerous coincidences between the histori- 
cal books and the prophecies and psalms. (Compare, 
fur instance, Judges ix. 53 with 2 Sam. xi. 21 ; Josh, 
xviii. 1 with Jer. vii. 12 ; 2 Kings hi. 27 with Amos ii. 1.) 

The argument from Institutions, as shown in a previous 
section (see p. 34), is applicable to the religion of the 
Old Testament, as well as to that of the New. The 
Passover, still observed among the Jews, bears witness 
to the deliverance from Egypt ; and numerous other 
observances, whether now maintained or not, but well 
known to have been observed before the destruction of 
the temple, testify to the truth of those Scriptures which 
alone explain their origin. (See this argument further 
developed in Leslie's " Short Method with Deists.") 

It is not necessary, however, in this brief summary, 
to dwell further on particulars of this nature. To 
Christians, the great evidence for the authority of the 
Old Testament is that derived from its connection with 
the New; and for questions of Old Testament criticism, 
regarding the authorship of books, or correctness of 



104 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

historical accounts, so far as they do not affect the 
acknowledgment of the Jewish law as of divine origin, 
Christianity is not responsible. 

Section 29. Old Testament Prophecy. 

An important branch of the Evidences of Christianity 
is derived from the fulfilment of prophecy. In consid- 
ering this, we view first the Prophecies of the Old 
Testament fulfilled in the New. 

Independently of especial predictions, the history of 
the Jews, with that of their thoughts and feelings, pos- 
sesses a prophetical character. 

Other nations have fixed their ideal of human exist- 
ence in the past. The Greeks and Romans held that 
there had been a golden age, when mankind were pure 
and happy. The Hebrews shared this view only in 
reference to the primitive happiness and innocence of the 
Garden of Eden. When that brief period w r as at an 
end their imagination turned towards the future. 

All through the Jewish history there appears an antici- 
pation of a glorious Ruler, to be sent by Heaven, and of a 
happy and virtuous state. Tins anticipation not only ap- 
pears in occasional passages, but it became interwoven 
with the thoughts of the people ; so that about the 
time of the Christian era, the expectation of such a ruler 
was general, not only in Judea, but in the surrounding 
nations. This we have on the authority of the Jewish 
historian Josephus, and of the Romans Suetonius and 
Tacitus. (See Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 5, § 4; Sueto- 
nius, Vita Vespasiani, § 4; Tacitus, Hist., § 13. 

This expectation was so strongly fixed in the mind of 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 105 

the Jewish race, that it remained after their rejection of 
the claims of Jesus, has survived the disappointments, 
wanderings, and sufferings of eighteen hundred years, 
and is still cherished* by their descendants to this day. 

While they looked forward to this personage, whom 
they called the Messiah, as a conquering king, they also 
anticipated that he would restore the national purity of 
worship. 

At the same time, they found passages in their 
prophetical books inconsistent with the idea of his 
uninterrupted success — passages intimating a ministry 
of suffer in o\ Hence some of their writers assert that 
there will be two Messiahs ; one the son of David, a 
royal conqueror ; the other the son of Ephraim, a suffer- 
ing reformer. (See Strauss's Life of Jesus, Part III., 
ch. i. § 112.) 

Such are the indications of the Old Testament, accord- 
ing to the interpretation put upon it by the race who 
received it as divinely communicated. 

At the age of the world when the expectation of a 
Messiah was most active in the minds of men, a person 
appeared whose character and history corresponded to 
this expectation. He is represented to have been a 
descendant of David. Although not literally a king, he 
called the community he established a kingdom ; and the 
term was justified by the greatness of the power his 
teachings exercised. Although not literally a conqueror, 
his cause has triumphed over the opposition of monarchs 
and of nations, and now exerts its control over the civil- 
ized world. 

The predictions of a suffering Messiah have been ful- 
filled more literally, for Jesus endured poverty, reproach, 



106 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

abandonment, and betrayal, and finally laid down his life 
in the cause of his religion. 

If it be objected that the character in which Jesus 
appeared was not that of a triumphant king in which he 
w T as foretold, and that on this account he was rejected by 
his own nation, who were best qualified to judge of his 
claims, we reply, — 

1. That it is essential to the character of prophecy 
that it should not indicate its accomplishment with per- 
fect clearness. If it did, the fulfilment would appear to 
have been brought about by studied effort. 

2. The reasons of the rejection of Jesus by his coun- 
trymen are apparent. The nation was eager for deliver- 
ance from the Roman yoke, and looked for the Messiah 
to lead them to this object. They rejected, therefore, 
the claims of a peaceful, spiritual Messiah. Joined to 
their disappointment on this account was the opposition 
of the ruling classes to all attempts at reform — an oppo- 
sition greatly embittered by Jesus' bold denunciation of 
their prevalent vices. 

3. While the Jews were thus prejudiced by their 
national feelings against the claims of Jesus, they had 
an answer to the evidence of miracles which would not 
be sanctioned by the philosophy of our day. It does not 
appear, either from the New Testament or from the 
Jewish or heathen writers, that they ever denied the 
reality of the miracles ; but they asserted that these were 
wrought by the power of evil spirits. (See Matt. xii. 
24; Luke xi. 15; John viii. 48.) 

4. The chief reason, named above, for which the Jews 
rejected the claims of Jesus, is to us a strong proof in 
favor of those claims. He fulfilled the prophecies in a 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 107 

higher sense than the prophets themselves probably were 
able to grasp. His nation, in the worldliness of their 
views, were disappointed in him; but we, at this dis- 
tance of time, can perceive their error. The station 
which the Savior has held, for ages after ages, as spir- 
itual king of numerous nations, and as the guide of 
mankind in the path of virtue, — to say nothing of any 
supremacy he may exercise hereafter in the future life, — 
is far higher than the glory of a conquering king of 
Palestine. This thought, of the superiority of his spir- 
itual dominion to a kingdom like that of David, he sua:- 
gested in the form of a question, but found no response. 
(Matt. xxii. 45.) 

5. Yet it is scarce conceivable that a Jew, in that age 
of formal observances and low morality, should (except 
by divine revelation) have entertained the idea of fulfil- 
ling the prophecies in this higher sense ; that he should 
have believed the predictions, and that he was the person 
to whom they pointed, yet should have refused to tread 
the path of military adventure, which all around ex- 
pected him to tread, incurring thus the danger of a 
shameful death ; and that by this strange path he should 
actually have succeeded in his bold aspirations. 

6. It may be further remarked, that the idea being 
imparted to the prophets, by revelation, of a leader and 
reformer, divinely sent and consecrated, they would of 
necessity imagine him to occupy the station which would 
seem most dignified and most favorable for his task — 
the station of king and conqueror. 

7. We are taught, by indications in the prophets 
themselves, that predictions are sometimes conditional, 
and that their fulfilment may be prevented by the 



108 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

unworthiness of those to whom a promise is made ; or 
by their repentance, if the prophecy be a threat. (See 
Jer. xviii. 7-10; Jonah iii. 10; iv. 11.) We can con- 
ceive that if the Jews had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, 
the prophecies respecting him might have been fulfilled 
in their lower sense as well as in their higher. The 
gentle spirit of his religion might have prevented the 
rebellion which led to their national overthrow ; the 
gospel might have spread with great rapidity ; and 
Jesus, without directly interfering with established mon- 
archies, might have ruled them all. Admitting that the 
divine promise was to be understood in a strictly literal 
sense, we see how it might have been fulfilled, had it not 
been forfeited by the national rejection of Jesus. 

The above argument, from the Jews' expectation of 
the Messiah, and the fulfilment of it by Jesus, would 
have force, even if every prophecy now applied to him 
were proved to have had some other application. For 
the questions would still occur, How came the Jewish 
people to anticipate a Messiah? and How, without divine 
intervention, was this anticipation met by the coming of 
one who should save and rule not only Israel, but the 
human race? The expectation and its fulfilment fit into 
each other as parts of the same whole. 

Section 30. The Jewish Revelation prophetic 
of the Christian. 

Again, the Jewish revelation is a prophecy of the 
Christian. 

The Jewish religion possesses, as we have seen 
(p. 91), strong claims to a divine origin. It teaches 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 109 

the unity and other attributes of God, which all the 
surrounding nations denied ; it teaches a much purer 
morality than theirs ; its documents, which have evi- 
dently come down from a very high antiquity, and its 
tradition, confirmed by that of the rival branch, the 
Samaritans, agree in testifying to ancient divine mani- 
festations, revealing the truths it teaches. But the 
Jewish religion alone is incomplete, deficient. Many of 
its instructions are evidently intended for the tribes to 
whom it was originally given, not for all mankind. It 
prescribes a ritual service, to be performed in one place, 
to which the people were required to resort three times a 
year (Ex. xxiii. 17), and forbids altars to be erected for 
sacrifice elsewhere. These and other regulations are 
evidently national. In some laws, too, the object plainly 
was, to keep the people apart from other nations. Thus 
the complicated distinctions between clean and unclean 
meats, and other rules relating to ceremonial purity, ren- 
dered it difficult for Jews to live on terms of familiar 
intercourse with foreigners. (Lev. xi.) By such laws 
commerce was discouraged, while agriculture was cher- 
ished by regulations for the tenure of land, which it was 
made impossible for any family permanently to alienate. 
(Lev. xxv. 10, 23-34.) 

Even if it were admitted that many or most of these 
rules were of more recent date than has generally been 
assigned to them, we have reason to suppose that their 
spirit was in accordance with the known customs and 
tendency of the nation. So too if it were admitted that 
the books ascribed to Moses were of later origin than his 
time, the general substance of the account they give 
must still be in accordance with national traditions. No 
10 



110 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

man could. impose upon a people an entirely false account 
of their own origin, and of the derivation and meaning 
of all their public observances, for the humblest citizen 
would be able to contradict him. (See p. 33.) 

Three suppositions may be formed to account for the 
existence of the Jewish religion. 

I. That it was the growth of human thought. 

II. That it was revealed from above as a system com- 
plete and permanent. 

III. That it was revealed from above as a system pre- 
paratory to a fuller revelation. 

1. The first supposition implies the falsehood of all 
the historical and traditional accounts, so far as they 
involve anything of miracle. It implies, therefore, that 
those who taught this system were guilty of imposture 
on the largest scale. The peculiar purity and nobleness 
of the system render it difficult to believe this respecting 
its authors. As we look upon the whole world lying in 
the darkness of idolatry, and one only nation worshipping 
the living and true God, we naturally recognize this ex- 
ception, not as the result of vile fraud and jugglery, but 
as designed by God to keep alive the remembrance of 
truth upon the earth. 

2. The second supposition is inconsistent with what 
we have pointed out as the temporary and limited char- 
acteristics of the system. It was designed for a single 
nation ; and, so far from encouraging them to become 
teachers of the truth to others, it kept them from inter- 
course with others by jealous restrictions. -It taught the 
brotherhood of all Israelites, but said little of the broth- 
erhood of mankind ; and this though it held within 
itself, in its account of the common origin of man, the 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. Ill 

germ of a more comprehensive liberality. So, though it 
taught the Unity of God, it announced him as especially 
the God of Abraham and his descendants. 

3. These limitations of the system show its prepara- 
tory character. It was from above, but was not the last 
nor the best gift of Heaven. Its character as a local 
religion showed that a universal one was yet to come ; 
its character as a ceremonial system betokened the future 
approach of one which should be spiritual. 

And Christianity fulfils this promise of its predecessor. 
It does no dishonor to the Jewish system ; accepts it as 
divine, so far as it goes ; but goes beyond it, and renders 
it complete. Without Christianity we could not account 
for God's giving a system so glorious, yet so imperfect, 
as Judaism. Without Judaism we could not account for 
the fact that God withheld from the world, for so many 
ages, the light of Christianity. 

The period when that light was given, and the circum- 
stances which accompanied it, indicate, by their appro- 
priateness," the agency of divine wisdom. It was when 
the Jewish observances had lost much of their spiritual 
life, and become debased to formalism and bigotry, and 
when the heathen systems around had, to a great extent, 
lost their hold on the faith of the nations that yet out- 
wardly maintained them. The tribes of the East had 
been brought together into one political family by the 
conquests of Alexander the Great, and those of the West 
by the conquests of the Romans ; while the final ascen- 
dency of the latter had combined the whole in one great 
empire, throughout which two languages, — and those 
nearly related to each other, — the Greek and the Latin, 
were generally understood. The brilliant period of 



112 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

heathen philosophy was past, so that its rivalship to the 
new religion was little to be dreaded : and the long and 
bloody civil wars of the Roman empire had been closed 
by the triumph of Augustus. Then, too, the successive 
invaders of Palestine had carried thence multitudes of 
captive Jews, and had settled them in the principal cities 
of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy ; so that there was 
everywhere the material for forming the nucleus of a 
Christian church. Thus, by divine appointment, the 
conquests of ambitious men and the pride of philosophy 
were overruled for the extension of the great blessing 
that was about to be given to the world. 

If it be objected that these favorable circumstances, 
instead of proving the care of Providence for the spread 
of the truth, should rather be regarded as sufficient to 
account for the spread of an imposture, the reply is easy. 
These same circumstances, of intellectual light and pro- 
found peace, while they would favor the diffusion of truth, 
would be unfavorable to that of falsehood, for they would 
render its detection easier. The existence of a Jewish 
community in every city not only gave the Christian 
teachers the means of obtaining their first hearing, but 
it gave their opponents also the means of answering 
them, so far as any answer could be given. Deceit 
prospers best in darkness, but the light was favorable to 
Christianity because it was the truth. 

If it still be questioned why this blessing of a true 
religion was so long withheld from all the world ex- 
cept Palestine, we reply that both sacred and profane 
history afford indications of an earlier revelation than 
that given by Moses ; and from this primitive communi- 
cation was probably derived much of the spiritual knowl- 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 113 

edge which the heathens possessed. This knowledge 
became corrupted by polytheism, and afterwards weak- 
ened by scepticism ; and then it was that the new and 
full revelation was bestowed. 



Section 31. Individual Prophecies or the Old 

Testament. 

The prophetic passages of the Old Testament which 
are adduced in proof of its sacred claims are partly those 
which had their fulfilment before Christ, and partly those 
which received their accomplishment in him. 

Of the former class we shall present some instances, 
in predictions of the desolation of cities and regions 
which were strong and prosperous at the time when these 
predictions were made. The fulfilment of these prophe- 
cies is evident to every one who travels in the East, or 
who reads the accounts presented by such travellers of 
the desolation of once populous countries, and the ruin 
of once proud capitals. Such predictions respecting 
Nineveh may be found in Nahum i. 9, Zeph. ii. 13, 
15 ; respecting Moab, in Zeph. ii. 8, 9, Jer. xlviii. 42 ; 
respecting Philistia, in Zeph. ii. 4. The fate of Edom 
is foretold in Jer. xlix. 16-18 ; a prophecy the fulfil- 
ment of which was made evident only recently by the 
discovery of the ruins of Petra, the rock-built capital of 
Edom. Respecting Egypt, see Ezek. xxix. 15, xxx. 
13 ; respecting Tyre, Ezek. xxvi. 4, 5 ; and with regard 
to Babylon, Is. xiii. 20, 21. 

There are many passages in the Old Testament which 
have been understood as prophetic of the Savior. In- 
deed, some theologians have been fond of recognizing 
10* 



114 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

not only the language, but the characters, of the Jewish 
state, as prefiguring the events of the Xew Dispensa- 
tion. Thus David, Solomon, and others have been 
represented as types of Christ. 

We cannot wonder at this, when we examine such a 
portion of Scripture as the seventy-second psalm. This 
bears, as its title (of whatever authority the title may 
be) , " For Solomon ; " and to a great extent it seems 
applicable to him. But there are verses that cannot be 
applied to any temporal sovereign with propriety. (See 
verses 5, 7, 11, 17.) These, therefore, have been sup- 
posed to refer to the Messiah. The usual explanation 
has been, that Solomon was a type of Christ, and that 
some things were said of him in that character which 
were not true of him as an earthly prince. 

Another view of the subject is the following : The 
prophetic insight into the future had, of course, its limits. 
The prophets knew that there was to be a glorious per- 
sonage, whom they contemplated chiefly under the char- 
acter of the Messiah, or Anointed, — that is, the King. 
They knew not, however, generally speaking, in what 
age he was to appear. Each of them, therefore, while 
foretelling the glories of some monarch's reign, and 
indulging the hope that he might be the Messiah, would 
be led to blend with the nearer prospect the vast but less 
definite perspective of the future age of glory. Thus 
traits which belong to the Messiah are blended in the 
second psalm with an inauguration ode ; in the forty-fifth 
with a marriage hymn ; in the psalm now before us with 
a song of congratulation ; in Is. vii., xi., and other pas- 
sages, with predictions of the times of Hezekiah ; and 
perhaps in Daniel ix. with what related primarily to 
the age of the Maccabees. 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 115 

It will not materially affect the value of prophetical 
evidence if we adopt a wider or a stricter theory of 
prophetical foreknowledge. Whether any particular 
writer was himself inspired to foretell future events, or 
whether he only gave utterance to the national anticipa- 
tion, derived from divine communications in ages past, 
his declarations will alike remain proofs of the Messiah- 
ship of Jesus, convincing in proportion to the clearness 
with which the reality answered to the prediction. 

We subjoin some of the most remarkable prophecies, 
which appear to have received their fulfilment in Jesus 
Christ. 

Genesis xxii. 18. "In thy seed shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed." The hopes of those rude ages 
were generally fixed on the conquest of other tribes, not 
on conferring blessings. The promise that looks to such 
a privilege betokens a wider foresight than that of an 
ancient chief. It is finding its fulfilment in the progress 
of Christianity, and could not possibly find it in any 
other. 

Psalm xxii. In this psalm the following sentences are 
most observable. The first words, quoted by the Savior 
on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me?" were probably not, as used by him, an ex- 
clamation of distrust, but an application of the psalm to 
himself. Verses 7,8. " All they that see me laugh me 
to scorn ; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, 
saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver 
him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." 
Verse 16. " The assembly of the wicked have enclosed 
me; they pierced my hands and my feet." Verse 18. 
"They part my garments among them, and cast lots 



116 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

upon my vesture." The coincidence of the sixteenth 
verse with the sufferings of Christ is the more remark- 
able as the punishment of crucifixion was unknown 
among the Jews of the age when the psalm was written. 

Psalm ex. 4. "The Lord hath sworn, and will not 
repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Mel- 
chizedek," that is, a priest of an entirely different order 
from that of Aaron — a kingly priest, and one without 
predecessor or successor in his office, as the expression is 
explained in Heb. vii. This psalm is not the less a 
prophecy of the Messiah because it portrays him accord- 
ing to Jewish ideas as a conquering monarch. If the 
prophets had understood and declared the full spir- 
itual glory of the revelation that was to come, there 
would have been nothing left for that revelation to 
communicate. 

Isaiah ix. 6. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son 
is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of 
Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace 
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and 
upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with 
judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. 
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Some 
of the epithets admit of a different translation ; but 
the passage still points to a greater monarch than any 
mere Jewish prince. 

Isaiah xlix. 5,6. " Though Israel be not gathered, yet 
shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God 
shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing 
that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes 



THE OLD TESTAMENT. 117 

of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will 
also give thee for a light to the Grentiles, that thou 
mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth." In 
this passage the prophet penetrates farther into the future 
than at other times, and recognizes the Messiah rejected 
by the Jews, but invested with higher glory as the 
Redeemer of mankind. (See also chapter lx.) 

Isaiah lii. 13, to liii. 12. This remarkable passage is 
referred to, as prophetic of the Savior, in Acts viii. 32. 
The appropriateness of this application is evident in the 
common version, particularly in the 5th, 6th, and 7th 
verses. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he 
was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our 
peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. 
All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned 
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on 
him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he 
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought 
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her 
shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Some 
verses, however, acquire a clearer application in the 
translation of Dr. Noyes, as verses 8-10 : — 

" By oppression and punishment he was taken away ; 
And who of that generation would consider, 
That he was cut off from the land of the living, 
That for the transgression of my people he was smitten ? 
His grave was appointed with the wicked, 
And with the rich man was his sepulchre, 
Although he had done no injustice, 
And there was no deceit in his mouth. 
It pleased Jehovah severely to bruise him ; 
But since he gave himself a sacrifice for sin, 
He shall see posterity ; he shall prolong his days, 
And the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand." 



118 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

In this passage we have the ideas of suffering 
patiently endured for the sake of others ; of condem- 
nation, execution, and burial ; and, notwithstanding all 
these, of life continued, usefulness, and glory. 

Micahv. 2. "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though 
thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of 
thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in 
Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from 
everlasting." (See Matt. ii. 5, 6.) 

Haggai ii. 7, 9. "I will shake all nations, and the 
desire of all nations shall come : and I will fill this house 
with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." :t The glory of 
this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith 
the Lord of hosts : and in this place will I give peace, 
saith the Lord of hosts." 

Malachi iii. i. "Behold, I will send my messenger, 
and he shall prepare the way before me ; and the Lord, 
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even 
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in ; 
behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." (See 
Matt. xi. 10.) 

Malachi iv. 5, 6. "Behold, I will send you Elijah 
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful 
day of the Lord ; and he shall turn the heart of the 
fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to 
their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a 
curse." (See Matt. xi. 14.) The last words of the 
Old dispensation are thus connected with the coming of 
that prophet who was the herald of the New. 



NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY. 119 



Section 32. New Testament Prophecy, and sub- 
sequent History of the Jews. 

I. Besides the proof of Christianity from prophecies 
in the Old Testament, which received their fulfilment in 
Christ, there is another, from predictions either by Jesns 
himself or his apostles, which have been fulfilled in subse- 
quent events. 

The most remarkable class of these is that of the pre- 
dictions concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
overthrow of the Jewish state. These are found at 
most length in Matt, xxiv., Mark xiii., Luke xvii. 
20-37, xxi. Perhaps, however, they may appear in a 
still more striking form in some passages where they 
occur incidentally, and which bear so evidently the 
marks of the Savior's peculiar style, or of strong 
emotion, that we can hardly imagine them to be from 
any other source than his own lips. (See Matt, xxiii. 
37-39; Lukexix. 41-44; xxiii. 28-31.) 

The fulfilment of these prophecies is a matter of un- 
questionable notoriety. About thirty years after the 
crucifixion, the Jews rebelled against the Roman power. 
After a war waged with great ferocity on both sides, their 
capital was besieged, and suffered every extremity of 
distress from famine and from internal discord, as well 
as from the arms of the enemy. It was at length taken 
by assault, utterly destroyed, and the remnant of the 
people carried into captivity. 

If it be objected that in some of the passages 
referred to indications are given of events which have 
not taken place, as of the visible return of Jesus to 



120 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

judgment, and of the end of the world, it is sufficient to 
answer, — 

1. That many of the expressions are evidently highly 
figurative, and that the figures employed may allowably 
be supposed to mean nothing more than the rapid exten- 
sion of the Christian religion, after the Jewish power, 
which oppressed it, had been broken down. 

2. That, as the ancient prophets, in their visions, 
often blended the distant with the near, we need not be 
surprised to find that even our Savior did not distinctly 
mark the boundaries of time between the events of the 
approaching age and the final consummation. 

II. As the Old Testament, in its general bearing, has 
been shown to be prophetic of the New, by its com- 
bined excellences and deficiencies, necessitating the 
coming of the system that was to perfect it, and thus 
proving its truth, so, apart from any direct prediction 
of our Savior, the events of his life and death necessi- 
tated the overthrow of the Jewish state, and his claims 
are confirmed by that catastrophe which fulfilled this 
implied prediction. 

The Israelitish state had stood for fifteen hundred 
years. It had survived repeated conquest and captivity, 
and seemed as likely to endure, in its humble condition, 
as any other portion of the immense dominions of Rome. 
The conquerors were tolerant to national peculiarities of 
belief, and their power was so extensive that rebellion 
seemed madness. At this time Jesus appeared. He 
claimed to be the promised Messiah ; but his claim was 
rejected, and himself cruelly put to death by the nation 
he addressed. If he was what he claimed to be, this re- 
jection of him required the rejection of the nation in its 



HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 121 

turn, its loss of whatever peculiar privileges it had en- 
joyed before. This was due, both to retributive justice, 
and to the vindication of the Messiah's claims. If the 
Jewish state had stood uninjured for even a hundred 
years after the crucifixion of Jesus, the fact would have 
afforded a strong argument against his claim to a divine 
commission. 

But the fact was otherwise. The great transgression 
received its punishment in the signal overthrow of the 
nation by whom it had been committed. The solemn 
ritual they boasted to have observed, with few intervals, 
since the days of Moses, was abolished, and has not, for 
near eighteen hundred years, been ever restored. In 
this event a strong providential confirmation was given 
to the authority of Jesus. We have reason to believe 
that it was so regarded in the age when it took place, 
and that no event contributed more to strengthen the 
faith of Christians, and to commend it to the reception 
of others, than this public vindication of the Redeemer's 
cause by that divine Providence that rules the affairs of 
nations. 

It may be further observed, that the overthrow of the 
Jewish nation was in exact accordance with the threaten- 
ings, by their own prophets, of calamities that should 
come upon them if they neglected the law of God. (See 
Deut. xxviii.) But they had been extremely tenacious 
of that law, especially during the period preceding their 
final overthrow. They had not, therefore, committed 
the offence against which the penalty was denounced, 
unless it was in rejecting the claims of Jesus ; and the 
fate that came upon them is unaccountable, except on 
that supposition. But if Jesus was such a prophet as 
11 



122 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 

was foretold in Deut. xviii. 15, then in rejecting him 
they transgressed the command, and incurred thereby 
their own rejection. (See verse 19. Acts hi. 22, 23.) 
The history of the Jewish race, so remarkable in its 
previous stages, is not less so since that awful event 
which appeared to be its ruin. The very fact that it is 
yet existing seems a miracle ; it is indeed a moral mira- 
cle, such as we have already pointed out in the existence 
and power of Christianity in the world. (See p. 25.) 
Other nations of that early period have passed away. 
The Romans, formerly so powerful, exist no longer ; the 
tribes which once inhabited France, Spain, and Northern 
Africa, have left scarce a trace of their languages or 
their institutions. The Greeks, indeed, who, though 
subjected, were never actually driven from their soil, nor 
incorporated with its conquerors, still exist, and speak 
their ancient language in an altered form ; but they profess 
a different religion from that of their ancestors. But 
the Jews, though their state was utterly overthrown, — 
though their race, driven from Palestine, was the object 
of cruel oppression, by Turk and Christian, in the various 
lands through which they were scattered, — yet exist, 
cherishing their ancient and peculiar language, and hold- 
ing in reverence their venerable law. This fact, wonderful 
in itself, possesses the greater claim on our regard, as 
connected with predictions, both in the Old and New 
Testaments, whose fulfilment, in some manner unknown 
to us, may still, with reverence, be anticipated. The 
Jewish race is apparently preserved for some high pur- 
pose ; perhaps that its final conversion to Christianity 
may establish, in clearer light than ever before, the 
divine authority of the gospel. (See Ezek. xxxvi. 
25-38; Hosea iii. 5; Rom. xi» 25, 26.) 



MARTYRDOMS. 123 



Section 33. Martyrdoms. 

The evidence afforded, by the patient sufferings of the 
early Christians, to the truth of their religion, may be 
regarded in two aspects. 

1. As furnishing proof of the sincerity of its early 
teachers, and thus of the truth of the accounts they 
gave. 

2. As showing the excellence of the religion, and its 
divine authority, by the power it exhibited of sustaining 
its martyrs, and by the qualities of patience, submission, 
forgiveness to enemies, and hope of heaven, which it 
communicated to them. 

I. In both these respects the sufferings of Jesus him- 
self are first to be considered. 

That these sufferings were endured by him in the 
manner recorded in the Gospels is confirmed to us by 
the absence of all evidence to the contrary. If the ene- 
mies of Jesus could with truth have asserted that he 
begged for his life, retracted his claims, or exhibited 
anything unworthy in language or in conduct, they 
would have eagerly proclaimed it ; and we should at 
least find traces in the Gospels or Epistles of some con- 
troversy on the subject. 

We have, then, the facts that the Founder of our reli- 
gion endured a painful and shameful death, in conse- 
quence of his claims, and that he bore it with the most 
heroic fortitude, the meekest resignation, and the most 
touching exhibition of a forgiving spirit towards those 
by whose agency he suffered. 

These facts show the sincerity of the sufferer. If he 



124 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

had made claims which he knew to be false, he would 
have endeavored to escape by retracting them ; or, if his 
own pride or the rage of his enemies had pre vented this, 
the consciousness of guilt would have impaired his cour- 
age and composure. His prayer for the forgiveness of 
his enemies, and his words to the penitent thief (Lukexxiii. 
43), would, then, have been the most blasphemons hypoc- 
risy, counterfeiting to perfection the language of heavenly 
mercy and divine authority ; and his last utterance, at 
the very point of death, "Father, into thy hands I com- 
mend my spirit," would have been bold mockery of the 
God before whom he was to appear. This, when taken 
in connection with all we know of his character and 
teachings, is utterly incredible. 

II. The Christian religion derives a confirmation of 
its truth from the sufferings endured by its early preach- 
ers ; for those preachers must have known the truth or 
falsehood of what they proclaimed. For instance, they 
universally declared that Jesus had risen from the dead, 
and many of them professed to have seen him after his 
resurrection. If this was not true, they were gross 
deceivers. Now, if they persevered in the account they 
gave, notwithstanding that it brought upon them obloquy, 
danger, and death, their constancy furnishes strong proof 
that they were true witnesses. 

Of the fact of their sufferings we have, in the first 
place, a strong presumption from the nature of the case. 
They braved the hostility alike of Jews and Gentiles ; 
of the Jews, by maintaining that the Teacher whom 
they had caused to be crucified was the Messiah, thus 
accusing the authorities of the nation of a sacrilegious 
murder ; and of the Gentiles, by undertaking, in the 



MARTYRDOMS. 125 

name of this new Teacher, to subvert the established 
system of heathenism. If they were not persecuted 
under these circumstances, human nature must have 
been different in that age from what it has been at any 
period before or since. 

We have, next, proof from Scripture history. That 
tells us that some of these early Christian teachers endured 
exile (Acts viii. 1), scourging (Acts v. 40; xvi. 23), 
imprisonment (Acts xii. 4; xxiv. 27), stoning (Acts 
xiv. 19), and distinctly records the violent death of two 
of their number (Acts vii. 59, 60; xii. 2), within 
twelve years from that of their Master. 

We have next the testimony of Jewish and heathen 
writers. Josephus tells us of the martyrdom of the 
apostle James the Less. He says that in the inter- 
val between the death of the procurator Festus and 
the arrival of his successor, the High Priest Ananus 
caused James, ff the brother of Jesus, who was called 
Christ," to be put to death by stoning. It is thought 
by some that the words we have particularly quoted 
were added in explanation by some transcriber ; but 
there appears to be no reason to doubt the identity of 
the victim, as the account given by Eusebius, from 
Christian tradition, is nearly the same. (See Josephus, 
Antiq. xx. 9, § 1.) 

Tacitus, who was born in the reign of Nero, about 
the middle of the first century, tells us that that Em- 
peror, in order to turn from himself the suspicion of 
having set fire to the city of Rome, "laid the guilt, 
and inflicted the most cruel punishments, upon a set of 
people who were held in abhorrence for their crimes, 
and called, by the vulgar, Christians. Great numbers 
11* 



126 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

of these were put to death, with various torture, — some 
being disguised in the skins of beasts and worried to 
death by dogs, and others wrapped in pitched shirts, 
and set on fire at evening, that they might serve as 
torches to illuminate the night." (Annal. xv. 44.) 

Suetonius, another writer of the same age, speaks of 
the persecution more briefly, and with equal ignorance 
of the character of those whom it affected. He says, 
only, " The Christians were punished — a set of men of a 
new and mischievous superstition." (Vita Neronis, § 16.) 

The account of Tacitus is confirmed by Juvenal, a 
contemporaneous poet, and by Martial, who wrote some- 
what later, both of whom refer to the horrible punish- 
ment of the pitched garment. 

About seventy years after the resurrection, the younger 
Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus), Governor of Bithynia 
and Pontus, wrote to the Emperor Trajan an account of 
the prevalence of Christianity in the provinces under his 
care, and of the measures taken for its suppression. 
The "superstition," according to him, had seized many 
of either sex and of every age ; not in the cities only, 
but through the country, so that the temples of the gods 
were comparatively deserted. The profession of Chris- 
tianity was a capital crime, and Pliny, though humanely 
disposed, had put to death many on account of it ; but 
accusations continued to come in, many from anonymous 
sources ; and the magistrate could not discover that the 
persons accused had been guilty of any criminal prac- 
tices, except attendance on the rites of their faith. From 
the best that he could learn, too, these consisted only of 
prayer and singing, a simple banquet, and an exhortation 
to each other to avoid bad conduct. He writes, there- 



MARTYRDOMS. 127 

fore, to the emperor, for further orders. The reply of 
Trajan approves his course, and directs him not to en- 
courage informations, but to punish those who should be 
convicted and should refuse to retract. (Plin. Epist. 
x. 97.) 

To turn from the evidence of their enemies to that of 
the Christians themselves, we have the following" from 
Clement of Rome, one of the apostolical fathers : " Let 
us take the examples of our own age. Through zeal and 
envy, the most faithful and righteous pillars of the 
church have been persecuted even to the most grievous 
deaths. Let us set before our eyes the holy apostles. 
Peter, by unjust envy, underwent, not one or two, but 
many sufferings ; till at last, being martyred, he went to 
the place of glory that was due unto him. For the same 
cause did Paul, in like manner, receive the reward of his 
patience. Seven times he was in bonds ; he was whipped, 
was stoned ; he preached both in the east and in the west, 
leaving behind him the glorious report of his faith ; . . . 
he at last suffered martyrdom by the command of the 
governors. . . . To these holy apostles were joined a very 
great number of others, who, having through envy un- 
dergone, in like manner, many pains and torments, have 
left a glorious example to us. For this, not only men, 
but women, have been persecuted, and, having suffered 
very grievous and cruel punishments, have finished the 
course of their faith with firmness." 

Passing over the testimony of intermediate writers, we 
present an extract from a letter of the church of Smyrna, 
soon after the martyrdom of Poly carp, the disciple of 
John, A. D. 166. Besides describing his constancy, they 
say, " The sufferings of all the other martyrs were 



128 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

blessed and generous, which they underwent according 
to the will of God. . . . And indeed, who can choose 
but admire the greatness of their minds, and that admi- 
rable patience and love of their Master which then ap- 
peared in them? who, when they were so flayed with 
whipping that the frame and structure of their bodies 
were laid open to their very inward veins and arteries, 
nevertheless endured it. In like manner those who were 
condemned to the beasts, and kept along time in prison, 
underwent many cruel torments, being forced to lie 
upon sharp spikes laid under their bodies, and tormented 
with divers other sorts of punishments ; that so, if it 
were possible, the tyrant, by the length of their suffer- 
ings, might have brought them to deny Christ." 

In addition to these testimonies from earlier ages, we 
have that of numerous writers, both heathen and Chris- 
tian, establishing the fact that at different periods during 
the first three centuries, the most violent persecutions 
raged against the Christians. These were sometimes 
outbreaks of popular fury, or confined to single prov- 
inces ; but frequently they were carried on throughout 
the empire with all the resources of absolute power, and 
all the rage that might mark the death-struggle of the 
reigning superstition. Ten such general persecutions 
have been enumerated, and the victims have been com- 
puted at not less than three millions. 

A very striking confirmation of these historical state- 
ments is found in the ancient Christian monuments 
existing in the catacombs at Rome. These are vast 
subterranean excavations, which were used by the Chris- 
tians as places of burial for their dead. Their extent is 
such that they have been estimated to contain nearly 



CONCLUSION. 129 

seven millions of graves, fully confirming the accounts 
of ancient writers respecting the great number who em- 
braced Christianity. Among the inscriptions here, the 
word Martyr, and the palm and other emblems of mar- 
tyrdom, are of frequent occurrence ; and in some instances 
the tale of Christian endurance is more fully related. 
(See Rawlinson's Bampton Lectures, pp. 282-288, 530.) 
The later of these victims could not, of course, pre- 
sent in their sufferings such strong confirmation of the 
truth as the first had done ; for their belief was founded, 
not on personal knowledge, but on the evidence of others. 
But they proved their own strong reliance on the good 
faith of their instructors, respecting whom they had the 
best means of knowledge ; and these instructors, in turn, 
testified to the fidelity of those who went before them. 
The martyrs showed, too, in a most striking manner, the 
power of their religion to support the soul, and to impart 
the holiest feelings of submission to God, and of for- 
giveness and love to man. The prayer of the Savior, 
pardoning his murderers, found repeated imitation among 
those who suffered as his disciples. The patience and 
piety with which the Christians bore their persecutions, 
won constantly new followers, as those around saw, by 
such indications, the divine glory of the faith by which 
they were upheld. 

Section 34. Conclusion. 

We have thus presented, in a brief outline, the argu- 
ments for the truth of the Christian system. Much 
learning and ability have been employed, in times past 
and in our own, in developing the various portions of 



130 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

this evidence, and guarding the religion of Jesus, at all 
points, against the assaults of infidelity. Such labor 
has been of high importance ; and yet it is not by in- 
genious arguments that the disciples of Christ have 
generally been won or secured. It has been by the 
beauty and holiness of the system, by its adaptation to 
human nature, and by the power and excellence of the 
influence it has been seen to exert. We conclude, there- 
fore, with a few words upon a subject already presented 
among others — the Efficacy of Christianity. 

This has been proved, in the first place, by the public 
improvements which the gospel has brought about. 
That it has not done all that might be desired, is con- 
fessed. It has not removed sin nor sorrow from the 
earth; and while man continues a free agent, no means, 
however powerful, can effect this. But the gospel has 
done much. It put an end to the cruel games of the 
lioman amphitheatre, where men were made to slaughter 
each other for the amusement of the citizens. It re- 
strained licentiousness, and banished almost from human 
knowledge some forms of sensuality once freely indulged 
in. It has softened the conduct of war, established 
bounds to despotic authority, abolished the cruel and 
licentious form of slavery which prevailed eighteen hun- 
dred years ago, triumphed over the slavery of the feudal 
system, and is now exterminating, throughout the earth, 
that later form of this evil which till recently prevailed 
in our own country. It has established hospitals, and 
encouraged schools and universities. The Greatest and 
best of reformers have been made such by the Christian 
religion. The noblest names among the benefactors of 
humanity are inscribed in its annals. 



CONCLUSION. 131 

In more private life, the efficacy of Christianity is 
witnessed wherever we turn our sight. If we inquire 
by what power the evil propensities of a neighborhood 
have been subdued, we find that it was by the coming 
among; them of some religious teacher. If we hear of a 
man, formerly reckless and dissolute, brought to a peace- 
able and sober life, we learn that he has been converted 
at a camp-meeting, or in some more gradual manner 
been brought to the love of Christ and his gospel. 
If we ask the bereaved what has brought them comfort, 
they answer, the religion of Christ. If we look around, 
to see what now is civilizing:; the globe, we find it is the 
gospel in the. hands of Christian missionaries. 

If we look within, and strive to discern with what 
power or influence our best thoughts and feelings are 
connected ; by what we have been kept back from wrong 
or encouraged to right doing ; by what we have been 
led to repentance, cheered in sorrow, or strengthened 
for virtuous effort, — we find that, from whatever the im- 
pulse directly proceeded, it was connected, nearly or 
remotely, with the precepts and example of Jesus Christ. 
The enlightening and healing power of the gospel has 
come to us from the guidance of Christian parents, from 
the teachings of the Christian pulpit, from the institu- 
tions, the customs, the habits of thought and feeling of 
a Christian community. We recognize in the gospel 
the source of every hallowed influence ; we perceive its 
result within ourselves, and we know that the medicine 
must be genuine from its power to heal. 

To him in whose inward experience it is fully realized, 
this evidence to the truth of Christianity from personal 
knowledge of its worth is the most powerful of all. It 



132 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

is this which retains, in firm allegiance to Christ, thou- 
sands who have never had it in their power to examine 
the testimony of antiquity, or to follow the researches 
of science. They know the truth of the religion because 
it has been to them individually " the power of God unto 
salvation." Let the assurance they give us encourage 
our efforts, and if convinced by the evidences we have 
surveyed, that Jesus spake the words of God, let us 
strive, by obedience to his holy law, to crown our specu- 
lative faith in his gospel by personal experience of its 
inestimable value. 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 



Section I. — 1. Whence is knowledge on religious subjects commonly de- 
rived ? 2. What original sources can be named ? 3. What do we learn from 
innate ider.s? 4. What from nature? 5. Why are not these means of knowl- 
edge sufficient. G. Into what errors have men fallen with regard to the nature 
of God? 7. What is said of morality among the ancient heathen? 8. What 
of customs of society? 9. Human sacrifices ? 10. Divine honors ? 11. What 
is said of those who now reject Christianity? 12. What then seems probable ? 
13. What instances of God's goodness confirm this probability ? 14. Of what 
can revelation alone assure us? 1-5. By what is this probability further 
confirmed ? 

Section II. — 1. What is a miracle ? 2. What must revelation be, and 
why? 3. What is implied in denying the possibility of miracle? 4. What is 
said of the uniformity of the laws of nature ? 5. What of the power of God ? 
6. Why does religion appear worthy of miraculous intervention ? 7. To what 
miracle or miracles does science testify ? 8. What does Geology teach ? 
9. Why must the beginnings of vegetable and animal life have been miracu- 
lous ? 10. How is this conclusion affected, if we admit the theory of gradual de- 
velopment ? 11. How, if creation be resolved into a single impulse ? 12. What 
inference can we draw from creation to revelation? 13. How may miracles be 
consistent with laws of nature? 14. Give the illustration of the bird in the 
forest. 15. That of the sunrise and the comet. 16. What has been argued 
from human experience ? 17. To what does our individual experience amount ? 
18. Is all the testimony of past ages on one side ? 19. On which side is the 
positive testimony — for miracles, or against them ? 20. To what two purposes 
are miracles applied ? 21. Why not to others ? 22. What must miracles be, in 
order to command belief? 23. What must the revelation be which they sus- 
tain? 24. How must they be proved? 25. What does Christianity claim? 
20. What passages are referred to? (This question may be asked in all future 
references to passages of Scripture.) 27. What does consistency require of us ? 
28. Supposing Christianity received on other grounds, what connection would 
miracles have with its authority ? 29. How would they prove God's love to 
man? 30. What is the most suitable question for us to ask ? 

Section III. — 1. What inquiry now meets us? 2. What is said of 
Christianity and civilization? 3. Of the condition of woman? 4. Charac- 
ter of Christiana ? 5. Admissions of sceptics ? 6. Endeavors to improve 

12 



134 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 

Christianity ? 7. What idea does Christianity give of God ? 8. "What of man ? 

9. Of duty? 10. Of man's destiny? 11. For what does it alone exhibit a 
fitness? 12. What is said of the requirements of Mohammedanism? 13. Of 
Judaism? 14. How does Christianity differ from them? 15. From what does 
it propose to save its disciples ? 

Section IV. — 1. What are the other religions in the world ? 2. How was 
Judaism given ? 3. In what respects is it incomplete ? 4. How is the spirit 
of Judaism, in some former ages, exemplified in the second book of Esdras ? 
5. From what is Mohammedanism derived ? 6. What is its character ? 7. What 
is said of Mormonism. ? 8. Why may Buddhism be distinguished from oth-^r 
heathen religions ? 9. What are some of its characteristics ? 10. What is 
said of Heathenism? 11. What is said of ancient philosophers ? 12. Of 
Plato ? 13. What is said of other religions respecting miracles ? 14. What of 
Mohammedanism? 15. Brahminism and Heathenism? 16. By what names is 
Deism sometimes called ? 17. From what are its doctrines in great part de- 
rived ? 18. What doctrines are doubted by some among those who reject 
Christianity ? 

Section V. — 1. In what does Christianity coincide with natural religion? 
2. How has modern science made this clearer ? 3. What resemblance between 
God's government in nature and in Christianity with regard to small things ? 
4. What in regard to the practical and the theoretical ? 5. How does Chris- 
tianity teach concerning a future life ? 6. How does Mohammedanism ? 7. How 
is Christianity analogous to nature in its operation on the heart, and on socie- 
ty ? S. How in its remedial character? 9. How in its mediatorial character? 

10. What cases of suffering are analogous to the death of Christ ? 11. How has 
this agreement with nature been used as an argument against Christianity ? 

12. Why should we not expect all the teachings of Jesus to be new? 13. For 
what purposes, beyond the teaching of new truth, did he come? 

Section VI. — 1. How otherwise may the harmony of Christianity with 
nature be seen ? 2. How is it addressed to the intellect? 3. How to the imagi- 
nation? 4. Give an account of some of the passages referred to. 5. How is 
Christianity adapted to the conscience and the will ? 0. What is said respect- 
ing future judgment? 7. What of the excitement of conscience ? 8. Hope of 
pardon and assistance ? 9. How is it adapted to the affections in the idea it 
presents of God ? 10. How in that of the Savior? 11. How in regard to the 
domestic and social affections? (Under each question give the passages 
referred to.) 

Section VII. — 1. What does the moral law of Christianity embrace? 
2. How are these principles taught by heathen philosophers, by the Old Testa- 
ment, and by Christ ? 3. What further rules are given by Christianity, ex- 
pressly or by implication ? 4. In what respects is Christianity a system of 
restraint ? 5. What opposite evil does it avoid ? G. What virtues have bpen 
most popular? 7. What least so? 8. Which would an uninspired teacher 
have chiefly commended, and why ? 9. Why would an ambitious leader have 
urged them? 10. Which did Jesus commend? 11. How do his precepts of 
meekness and forgiveness appear practicable ? 12. What did this course show? 

13. Did he discountenance then the popular class of virtues ? 14. Why did he 
not directly commend them ? 15. How did he encourage them ? 1G. Give the 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 135 

passages referred to. 17. To what does Christianity ascribe the evils that 
exist? 18. How have reformers in general directed their efforts? 19. Why 
have they done right in this ? 20. Why, then, has Christianity done better? 

21. Why would not a fanatic have taken this ground? 22. An impostor? 
23. How have some defended certain evil institutions ? 24. How has the same 
fact been used by others ? 25. What furnishes a reply to both arguments ? 
26. What is said of despotism ? 27. What of the gladiatorial combats ? 28. 
What principles did Christ lay clown? 29. What institutions and practices are 
condemned by him? 30. AV hat distinction may be made by objectors between 
receiving the morality of Christ and receiving his religion? 31. If one sin- 
cerely obeys his moral precepts, what will probably follow ? 32. What does 
the holiness of the system prove ? 33. With what is its morality inseparably 
connected ? 34. Give the substance of the extract from Professor Norton. 

Section Till. — 1. What is said of the personal character of the founder, 
in most systems ? 2. What claim did Jesus make ? 3. Why would not a 
fanatic have done thus ? 4. Why would not an impostor ? 5. What has been 
admitted by many, who did not receive Christianity as divinely revealed ? 
G. What are the words of Rousseau ? 7. What those of Renan ? 8. What 
qualities does the Savior's character combine ? 0. What text illustrates his 
feelings as a citizen ? 10. What as a friend ? 11. What as a son ? 12. What his 
courage and gentleness ? 13. What his superiority to prejudice, and his wise 
self-control ? 14. What his regard for the law, while he blamed the Pharisees ? 
15. What his course respecting the distribution of property? 1G. What his 
dignity and meekness ? 17. The manner in which he called his followers to 
him? 18. When does the beauty of his character most appear? 19. What are 
the instances referred to as preceding his crucifixion ? 20. Those accompa- 
nying his crucifixion ? 21. What is one of the highest achievements of art? 

22. What is inferred from this ? 23. Can you name any of the incidents here 
mentioned which the writers could be supposed to have derived from previous 
narratives? 24. What is said of the prayer for his murderers? 25. What of 
his words to the penitent thief? 2G. Give the substance of the passage from 
President Hill. 

Section IX. — 1. From what source may another argument for Christianity 
be derived ? 2. What is said of the change produced eighteen centuries since ? 
3. Of the teacher who wrought this change ? 4. How may so great a result, 
from means apparently so inadequate, be regarded ? 5. What is said of 
the birth of Jesus? G. Of his education? 7. Of his means of support? 
8. Of the opposition against him ? 9. Of the greatness of his claims ? 
10. What power did he claim ? 11. What in regard to his conduct ? 12. What 
titles and rank in connection with the Jewish nation? 13. What connection 
with God ? 14. What did he foretell respecting himself? 15. By what other 
lofty titles did he announce himself? 16. How must he be regarded, if not 
divinely commissioned? 17. In what manner did he make these claims? 
18. What plan did he connect with them? 19. What fate did he foretell for 
himself? 20. How did this knowledge affect him? 21. Why can we not 
regard him as deluded ? 22. Why not as an impostor ? 23. What is said of the 
course he pursued? 24. What sects existed among the Jews at that time? 
25. What did Jesus denounce in the Pharisees ? 26. In what did he differ from 
the Sadducees ? 27. In what from the Essenes ? 28. What feeling had they all 



136 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 

in common ? 29. How would a fanatic have done ? 30. How an impostor ? 
31. How did Jesus ? 32. How respecting- ceremonies ? 33. Respecting the 
Samaritans ? 34. Respecting the Temple ? 35. What course did he pursue 
with regard to the Gentiles ? 3G. Yet what was the result ? 37. What is said 
of the first day's preaching? 38. Effect of persecution? 39. Contest with 
Roman power? 40. With barbarism ? 41. Of the present prospects of Chris- 
tianity ? 42. How is this triumphant system considered by modern sceptics ? 

Section X.— 1. For what reason, besides direct evidence, do the death and 
resurrection of Jesus claim our belief? 2. What is said of some of the facts 
of Christianity ? 3. What are these ? 4. What is the tradition of the church 
respecting the death of the Savior? 5. What is that of its opponents? 
6. What does a reformer incur ? 7. How if he claims a divine commission ? 

8. What, then, is it agreed, did Jesus undergo ? 9. What is said of crucifixion ? 

10. What must have been the state of his followers after his death? 11. If 
they had remained in this condition, could the religion have prevailed ? 12. What 
restored their faith and courage, according to their own account ? 13. How was 
the resurrection of Jesus proclaimed ? 14. What is the testimony of the book of 
Acts? 15. What that of 1 Corinthians ? 16. What is the admission of Strauss ? 
17. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, what must one of his followers have 
been? 18. What, in that case, did this disciple accomplish? 19. How does 
modern scepticism meet this argument ? 20. What have some fancied ? 
21. What does this fail to explain? 22. Why? 23. What is the theory of 
Strauss on this subject? 24. How only would such an illusion be possible? 
25. In what, then, does this explanation fail ? 20. How does Strauss account 
for the testimony of St. Paul? 27. How does this consist with the strength of 
the apostle's mind ? 28. To what further objection is this supposition liable ? 

Section XI. — 1. What has been inferred from the present existence and 
power of Christianity? 2. What similar argument is now proposed? 3. What 
is said of this proof, in reference to others ? 4. Of what do institutions afford 
proof? 5. What does the observance of the Fourth of July prove? 6. How 
if all records were lost ? 7. Why could not the observance have arisen in in- 
tervening ages of darkness ? S. From what kind of cause must it have arisen? 

9. What would decide respecting the real cause ? 10. What was the Passover? 

11. Is it still observed? 12. What does if commemorate ? 13. Why could 
it not have been instituted at any intervening point of time? 14. What 
does the observance prove? 15. What respecting the history which records 
that event ? 10. What does the Feast of Tabernacles prove ? 17. What the 
Feast of Purim ? 18. What other Jewish institutions ? 19. What are named 
as Xew Testament institutions? 20. Describe the Communion. 21. Why 
could not this have been introduced in any intervening age ? 22. From what 
age must it have come down ? 23. What do the words connected with it imply, 
as to the author of the custom? 24. What must he have foreseen ? 25. Why 
must his anticipation have been accomplished ? 20. What might he have done ? 
27. How does this appear? 28. What did he do instead? 29. What qualities 
does this rite show that he possessed ? 30. What respecting the fulfilment of 
his expectations for the success of his cause? 31. What, then, does the ordi- 
nance prove with regard to the character and endowments of the Savior ? (It 
may be interesting and useful to follow out, in a similar manner, the argument 
to be derived from the ordinance of Baptism, Matt, xxviii. 19; that from the 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 137 

institution of the ministry, Matt. x. 1 ; 2 Tim.ii. 2; and that from " the Lord's 
Day," John xx. 19, 26; Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2; Kev. i. 10.) 

Section XII. — 1. What claim is peculiar to the religion of the Bible? 
2. "What was the character of the age in which Jesus lived ? 3. By whom were 
his actions, instructions, and miracles witnessed and recorded? 4. At what risk 
were the statements of these witnesses made ? 5. By whom were they received 
as true ? 6. What of contradictory accounts ? 7. What of legendary additions? 
8. What are the records of Christianity ? 9. When is a book genuine ? 
10. When is it authentic? 11. Into what classes is the evidence divided? 

12. "What traditional evidence have we for the books of the New Testament? 

13. What is said of the original manuscripts ? 14. How many manuscripts of 
the Gospels have been examined ? 15. What is the age of some of them ? 
16. What is said of the manuscripts of ancient versions ? 17. What of the 
works of the Christian Fathers ? 18. When are the Gospels admitted to have 
been in common use ? 19. What is the era of the ascendency of Christianity ? 
20. By what event was this marked? 21. What did the Boman empire then 
comprise ? 22. Who wrote about this time ? 23. What testimony does he give 
to the books of the New Testament ? 24. Of what does he speak doubtfully ? 
25. Of what does he speak as undoubtedly genuine ? 26. What does this dis- 
crimination show? 27. When did Origeu die ? 28. How early was he engaged 
in expounding the Scriptures ? 29. What does he testify respecting the Gospels ? 
30. What is said of his quotations ? 31. What was the period of Tertullian ? 
32. What is said of the quotations in this writer ? 33. When did Clement of Alex- 
andria nourish ? 34. Of what does he give an account ? 35. What distinction 
does he make? 36. What is the Muratorian Canon? 37. What is its date? 
38. How is this ascertained ? 39. Of what books does it speak as canonical ? 
40. By whom and when was it discovered ? 

Section XIII. — 1. When did Irenaeus live? 2. Where and from whom 
did he receive instruction? 3. Where did he afterwards minister? 4. How 
do these facts affect the value of his evidence ? 5. What account does he give 
of the origin of the Gospels? 6. What letter was written about A. D. 170? 
7. To what books does it contain references ? 8. What was then the age of 
Pothinus, bishop of Lyons? 9. What do these facts indicate? 10. When did 
Justin live, and why is he called Martyr ? 11. What is said of his quotations ? 
12. What account does he give of the Savior ? 13. How far does this differ 
from the Gospels ? 14. In what instances does he refer to the Gospel of John? 
15. Why are these quotations of especial importance ? 16. How has this evi- 
dence been met ? 17. How is the objection removed by the recently discovered 
Sinaitic manuscript ? 18. What is the date of Papias ? 19. By whom is a frag- 
ment of his writing preserved ? 20. What is his testimony ? 21. With whose 
does it agree ? 22. Where did Polycarp preside ? 23. When and how did he 
die ? 24. What was his answer when life was offered him if he would revile 
Christ? 25. Of whom had he been a scholar? 26. What does Irenaeus record 
of him ? 27. What allusions does his Epistle contain ? 28. In what books are 
the passages alluded to ? 29. By whom and where is Clement of Borne named ? 
30. From what Gospel does Clement quote ? 31. From what Epistles ? 32. Who 
are generally called the Apostolical Fathers, and why ? 33. Whom does Papias 
quote as his instructor ? 34. Who does " John the Elder " appear to have been, 
from the testimony of Irenaeus ? 35. What has been conjectured of the Gospels 

12* 



138 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 

used by some of these Fathers ? 36. "What appears from Luke i. 1. 37. "Why 
did these other writings disappear ? 38. What would have been the case 
if they had contained different accounts ? 39. What shows that they were the 
same with ours ? 40. What is said finally of the testimony of Papias ? 

Section. XIV. — 1. What fact strengthens the testimony of the Fathers ? 
2. How is this instanced in Eusebius ? (See p. 40.) 3. When did Dionysius live, 
and respecting what book did he express doubt? 4. Origen? 5. Caius ? 
6. What do these facts prove? 7. What has been the general decision since 
respecting the books then doubted ? 8. What ought our decision to be 
respecting those which were then undoubted ? 9. From what else can we infer 
the truth of the Gospels ? 10. What passages show the prominence given to 
events in the history of Jesus ? 11. What is remarked by Mr. Norton ? 12. To 
what class do the writers thus far quoted belong ? 13. What other class was 
there ? 14. Who were the earliest of these ? 15. What were the Ebionites, 
and their views ? 10. What is said of the Gospel they possessed ? 17. What 
other class of heretics was there ? 18. From what source were their ideas 
derived? 19. What does their name imply? 20. How do they seem to have 
formed their systems ? 21. How were they disposed with regard to anything 
Jewish ?, 22. About what time did Marcion live ? 23. What was his course with 
regard to the Gospels ? 24. What did Heracleon write, and when ? 25. What 
is said of Valentinus in relation to John's Gospel? 26. The Montanists ? 
27. The Alogi ? 28. When did Basilides live, and what did he write ? 29. With 
what Gospels was he acquainted ? 30. Had the early Gnostics any other Gospels 
than ours ? 31. What is said of other books called Gospels among the later 
Gnostics ? 32. What does Tertullian assert ? 33. How does he argue against 
their right to do this ? 34. What does this argument prove ? 35. What is said 
by Paley respecting early sects ? 

Section XV. — 1. To what class of writers do we now turn ? 2. When were 
the Talmuds composed ? 3. Of what particulars connected with Christianity 
do they speak? 4. What account do they give of the miracles of Christ? 
5. Why is their testimony valuable ? 6. Who was Josephus ? 7. What direct 
references to Christ appear in his works ? S. What is said of these passages ? 
9. In what is his evidence of most value ? 10. Exemplify this in his account 
of Herod I. 11. Of Herod Antipas. 12. Agrippa I. 13. Agrippa II. 14. What 
heathen writers are named? 15. Who was Julian? 16. What is said of his 
testimony? 17. When did Porphyry write? 18. What is said of his work? 
19. To what Christian writings did he refer? 20. Who was Celsus ? 21. From 
what source do we learn respecting his book? 22. What words did he use? 
23. What is remarked respecting them ? 24. Of what does he accuse the Chris- 
tians? 25. From what did the various readings probably result? 26. What do 
they prove ? 27. What other expression of Celsus proves the antiquity of the 
Christian writings ? 28. What are the particulars to which Celsus refers by 
way of objection ? 29. What does his language prove? 30. How long was 
this after the earliest of the Gospels claims to have been written ? 31. To what 
conclusion does this lead us ? 32. From what other source is evidence derived ? 
33. When was the ancient Syriac version made ? 34. What do the versions 
confirm ? 35. What does their existence show ? 36. From what other writings 
may a similar argument be drawn ? 37. What other source of evidence is 
mentioned ? 38. What is said of a coin of Cyprus ? 39. Of Philippi ? 40. Of 
coins of Ephesus ? 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 139 

Section XVI. — 1. What is the Internal Evidence? 2. What is said of 
the language ? 3. What examples of Hebraisms in the use of " and " ? 4. " Lo," 
or " behold " ? 5. " Answered " ? 6. In a proverbial expression ? 7. In the 
expression " New Birth " ? 8. What of the acquaintance of the New Testament 
writers with certain subjects ? 9. How is it with such accuracy in fictitious 
writing? 10. What chapter is taken as an example? 11. What is said of the 
position of the three provinces ? 12. The name of a city ? 13. The parcel of 
ground ? 14. The mountain ? 15. The Samaritan worship ? 16. Jealousy of Jews 
and Samaritans ? 17. What passages in Scripture agree with these representa- 
tions ? 18. What existing facts confirm them ? 19. What is the testimony of 
Renan ? 20. Of Strauss ? 21. In what besides geography is this accuracy per- 
ceived ? 22. How is this exemplified in the Herod family ? 23. What makes 
these facts of more importance ? 24. Where did the Gospel find its most 
numerous adherents ? 25. What took place after the Jewish war ? 2G. What 
is said of books from Jewish Christian writers after that time ? 27. How is the 
argument briefly expressed ? 

Section XVII. — 1. What is the third point in the Internal Evidences? 
2. What is said of eulogy and personal description ? 3. Exceptions to this 
remark ? 4. What of unfavorable incidents ? 5. The Savior's trial ? G. Men- 
tion of doubts ? 7. What is the fourth point spoken of? 8. How illustrated in 
the disciples' conduct ? 9. How by words in the language spoken by Jesus ? 
10. How is the use of these words accounted for ? 11. What is the fifth point 
spoken of? 12. In what character, and how, is this exemplified? 13. What is 
the sixth point referred to ? 14. By what is Mark characterized ? 15. What is 
said of Matthew and Luke in their accounts of Christ's birth ? 16. What is 
said of the Sermon on the Mount? 17. What parables and incidents are given 
by Luke alone ? 18. What occurrences does John alone relate? 19. How does 
his manner of relating parables differ from the others ? . 20. What is said of his 
style ? 21. What examples respecting the dignity of the Savior ? 22. What of 
spiritual grandeur ? 23. How do the narratives agree ? 24. What is said of 
differences in thought and language ? 25. What of differences in the narrative ? 
26. By what historical event is this illustrated ? 

Section XVIII. — 1. What is the seventh point mentioned ? 2. Exemplify 
this in connection with the Last Supper. 3. What is the case sometimes, when 
accounts are apparently contradictory ? 4. How is this exemplified ? 5. What 
was the charge against Jesus, as related by Luke ? 6. The reply of Pilate ? 
7. Why does this reply seem strange ? 8. What is the explanation, and where 
found ? 9. What is omitted by John ? 10. How supplied by Luke ? 11. What 
is said of coincidences among the first three Gospels ? 12. What have some 
inferred from this ? 13. What name is given by these writers to the first three 
Evangelists ? 14. What is probable, respecting the original Gospel, had it 
existed ? 15. What is the fact ? 16. What is, probably, the true explanation ? 
17. What must have been current in the primitive churches, and therefore the 
true basis of all the Gospels ? IS. What is the eighth point mentioned ? 
19. What is said of the genuineness of the Epistles ? 20. Why could they not 
possibly have been forgeries ? 21. To what subjects do they relate? 22. How 
do they agree with the Gospels and Acts regarding the resurrection of Christ ? 
23. Where is the account of the Lord's Supper confirmed ? 24. How is the 
character of Peter illustrated ? 



140 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 

Section XIX. — 1. Among what books is the agreement most strikingly 
discernible ? 2. How is the authority of the Acts and the Epistles established ? 
3. In what work is this proof developed ? 4. Exemplify the agreement of the 
accounts in Paul's first visit to Jerusalem. 5. In regard to his visit to Athens, 
in what do the accounts agree ? 6. In what do they differ ? 7. How is the 
difference accounted for? 8. What of the preaching of Apollos at Corinth? 

9. What do we learn from Romans of Paul ? s contemplated visit to Jerusalem ? 

10. What from Acts of the same visit ? 11. How do we learn that the histo- 
rian was a companion of Paul ? 12. What do we learn from the conclusion of 
the Acts ? 13. How does it appear that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts were 
by the same author ? H. When was Luke's Gospel written, and how does this 
appear ? 15. What does this chain of evidence prove respecting the author- 
ship of this Gospel ? 16. What respecting its date, with reference to the 
crucifixion ? 

Section XX. — 1. To what other writings may a similar train of argument 
be applied ? 2. What does the writer of the fourth Gospel claim ? 3. How is 
this claim affected if the verse which contains it is from another hand ? 4. What 
is said of his style ? 5. Where do we learn the name of the writer? G. What 
may be conjectured from the remark in John xxi. 23 ? 7. What from the cir- 
cumlocutions by which he conceals his name ? 8. What is said of the promi- 
nence given to this apostle ? 9. How does Renan account for this ? 10. How 
would such weakness affect his character as an historian? 11. What is the 
more probable explanation ? 12. What other supposition remains ? 13. If this 
were true, what would the Gospel still be to us ? 14. Why is this theory less 
probable? 15. By what writers has the genuineness of this Gospel been 
especially attacked ? 16. What are the arguments brought against it ? 17. How 
do we reply to that from the difference of its narrative ? 18. In what respects 
is John's Gospel supplementary ? 19. How did his personal attachment affect 
his writing? 20. How his spiritual insight? 21. What is said, however, of 
the testimony of the other evangelists to the same objects ? 22. Why do these 
critics consider the idea of the Logos as indicating a later date ? 23. In what 
early writer does the same idea occur ? 24. What is said of its occurrence in 
the Apocalypse ? (Rev. xix. 13.) 25. How is the fact accounted for that the 
other Gospels do not mention the raising of Lazarus ? 26. What other explana- 
tion is suggested ? 27. How is the apparent difference with regard to the Last 
Supper explained ? 28. How is the "moral miracle" of Christianity affected 
if the fourth Gospel is set aside ? 29. If the transactions it records did not 
take place, what must have been the endowments of its inventor ? 30. How 
do these endowments render it improbable that he should impose a false 
Gospel on the world ? 31. That he should leave no trace of his existence 
except a forgery ? 32. What is the admission of Renan ? 

Section XXI. — 1. What endeavor has been made to depreciate the authen- 
tic Gospels ? 2. What are the Apocrypha of the New Testament ? 3. What 
result is here anticipated from their examination? 4. What may be inferred 
from Luke's preface ? 5. Why did these accounts fall into disuse ? 6. Which 
seems to have been the most important of them ? 7. With what may it have 
been identical ? 8. By whom is it quoted ? 9. What other Gospel is men- 
tioned ? 10. By whom is it mentioned? 11. What was his knowledge of it ? 
12. What further is said of these books ? 13. What is the assertion of Paley ? 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 141 

14. "What is said of the date of the Apocrypha of the New Testament ? 15. How 
do they compare with the authentic Gospels ? 16. Who is quoted as authprity in 
the First Gospel of the Infancy ? 17. How does this agree with what we know 
of Jewish High Priests, and of Caiaphas in particular ? 18. What wonder is 
he said to relate ? 19. What titles are given to Mary in the same Gospel ? 
20. What is the story of the boy possessed with devils? 21. The cures 
wrought by the Virgin with water ? 22. Transformation of the young man ? 

23. Miracle of the throne ? 24. Fate of the boy who ran against Jesus ? 
25. Complaint of the parents, and subsequent conduct ascribed to Jesus ? 
28. What account is given of Cariuus and Leucius ? 27. What is told of Pilate ? 
28. Acknowledgment of the Jewish Council ? 29. Prophecy they are said to 
have discovered ? 30. Subsequent action and fate of Pilate ? 31. What remarks 
are made upon the character of these stories ? 32. From what did they 
probably originate ? 33. Which of these documents purports to be from the 
hand of Jesus himself? 34. How may the "Gospel of Nicodemus" be re- 
garded ? 35. How far are the apocryphal writings inconsistent with the 
genuine Gospels ? 

. Section XXII. — 1. What appears to be now established respecting the 
Gospels ? 2. What of other books ? 3. For what would this be sufficient ? 
4. How exemplified in the fourth Gospel ? 5. What else, however, is proved ? 
C. What proofs are especially referred to ? 7. What is said of the general 
voice of antiquity ? 8. Its unanimity ? 9. How exemplified ? 10. Number of 
the witnesses ? 11. What objection from disagreement of copies ? 12. What 
is said of the number of various readings ? 13. What of their importance ? 

14. How are they accounted for ? 15. What is said of the claims of these 
records ? 10. How illustrated in a modern instance ? 17. On what account 
are they objected to ? 18. By whom is this position taken ? 19. How have they 
been led to it ? 20. What have scientific researches produced ? 21. Why has 
this conviction been considered opposed to miracle ? 22. How is the objec- 
tion answered ? 23. What is said of intellectual philosophy for a century past ? 

24. What system has prevailed in Germany ? 25. By what names illustrated ? 
20. What is one distinguishing trait of it ? 27. How far is this commendable ? 
28. When is it carried to an extreme ? 29. What is assumed by some recent 
writers ? 30. What does this assumption show ? 31. What is the remark of 
Strauss ? 32. Against what does Renan protest ? 33. Still, what conclusion 
does he reach, previous to examination ? 

Section. XXIII. — 1. Of what is a view proposed to be given? 2. On 
what supposition docs the first class of these theories proceed ? 3. What is to 
be classed among these ? 4. What author has attempted this ? 5. To what 
does he ascribe many of the Gospel wonders ? 6. To what remarkable miracle 
is this view applied ? 7. In what manner ? 8. To what miracles, among others, 
is this theory inapplicable ? 9. Where it is used, to what objection is it liable ? 
JO. How is the passage, John ix. 32, applied to this theory ? 11. What is said 
of the manner in which it has been advocated ? 12. What is the representation 
of the German Naturalists ? 13. Who is the best known among them ? 14. How 
does Dr. Paulus explain the miracle of the fish and the piece of money ? 

15. How the raising of Lazarus ? 16. How the ascension ? 17. What opinion 
of previous writers does Strauss perceive implied in this theory of Paulus? 
18. What was the fancy of Bahrdt ? 19. That of Brennecke ? 20. That of 



142 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 

Paulug with regard to the fate of Jesus? 21. What opinion does Strauss 
express respecting them ? 22. "What is said of the conduct ascribed to Jesus 
by these theories ? 

Section XXIT. — 1. What is the second class of theories ? 2. How does 
Renau conceive Jesus to have assumed the position of wonder-worker ? 
3. How would this explanation affect our estimate of him ? 4. In what 
instance does Kenan suppose Jesus to have been himself deceived? 5. By 
whom, and for what purpose ? 6. What event has been the subject of the 
boldest speculations ? 7. For what reason was this ? 8. On what two ideas do 
the explanations proceed ? 9. How is the death of Jesus explained by some? 

10. What is urged in support of this ? 11. What cases referred to ? 12. How 
were these persons restored ? 13. What would be required, then, to explain 
the restoration of Jesus ? 14. What is the supposition of Bahrdt as to the 
plan of Jesus ? 15. As to the agents in his restoration ? 16. What have others 
ascribed to his disciples ? 17. What did Schuster suppose ? IS. What is- the 
theory of a writer in the Westminster Review ? 19. What orders is Pilate sup- 
posed to have given, and why? 20. What is observed respecting the thrust 
with a spear ? 21. What respecting the slowness of recovery in such a case ? 
22. Why cannot we believe that Jesus was mistaken in thinking he had been 
dead ? 23. Why not that he was deceiving his disciples ? 24. To what does 
Eenan ascribe the story of the resurrection ? 25. What objection is made to 
this theory ? 

Section XXV. — 1. What is the ground taken by many? 2. Why cannot 
this be held consistently ? 3. How is this exemplified in the account of the 
raising of Lazarus? 4. What is said of the portions being interwoven? 
5. How exemplified in the same account ? 6. Whatuarne is given to the theory 
of Dr. Strauss ? 7. How far is it peculiarly his ? 8. How does it suppose the 
stories respecting Jesus to have arisen ? 9. With what purpose did the evan- 
gelists collect these myths ? 10. How are the miraculous incidents considered ? 

11. How those not miraculous ? 12. What remains as true respecting Jesus ? 
13. With what is this theory inconsistent ? 14. How does the Christian era 
differ from the ages of fable ? 15. What is said of the periods allowed by 
Strauss for the production of myths ? 10. How would Jewish myths have 
represented the Messiah ? 17. What do the Apocrypha of the Xew Testament 
show us ? IS. Why cannot we believe that the myths originated from the 
companions of Jesus ? 19. Why not, that they left no authentic account ? 

20. Had they left such, could the mythical account have superseded it ? 

21. What would have been the interest of the enemies of Jesus ? 22. What 
does their explanation of his miracles imply ? 23. What would have prevented 
the reception of these myths by the Gentile Christians ? 24. What is the 
Christian religion, apart from the question of its divine origin? 25. From 
what did it arise, according to this theory ? 2G. What is said of a later work 
of Dr. Strauss ? 27. What does he here represent to be the date of the Gos- 
pels ? 28. What respecting intentional fiction ? 29. How does he regard 
Jesus ? 30. What is said of the legendary history of Greece and Koine ? 
31. V»"hat of the history of our Lord ? 32. With what miracle is the narrative 
crowned ? 33. With what supposition is the mythical theory finally compared ? 

Section XXVI. — 1. Why is the Old Testament of value to us ? 2. How- 
is it sustained by quotations in the New ? 3. How by the position of the 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 143 

Savior ? 4. How does the Old Testament sustain the New by prophecies ? 
5. By what peculiarities of its character ? G. What system does the Old Testa- 
ment present ? 7. How does this appear from its first principle ? 8. How in 
contrast with Egyptian superstition? 9. How by the name it gives to the 
Supreme? 10. How by representations of his nature ? 11. How by his moral 
attributes, and his power, wisdom, and providence ? 12. How by the Ten 
Commandments ? 13. How by laws relating- to the poor ? 14. How by treat- 
ment of defective institutions ? 15. How by contrast with idolatry ? 1G. How 
by passages of especial sublimity and beauty ? 17. Give an account of the 23d 
psalm. (The same of each of the other passages referred to.) 

Section XXVII. — 1. Why are ancient documents liable to be obscure ? 
2. What was customary with ancient writers ? 3. What passages will this fact 
explain ? 4. On what authority do some of the narratives rest ? 5. How fir is 
the compiler of Genesis accountable for what is there related ? G. From what 
source is Joshua x. 12-14 derived ? 7. What is observed with regard to errors 
in matters of science ? 8. Censurable conduct of persons who are mentioned 
with approval? 9. Standard of morals, and peculiar temptations? 10. Sup- 
posed incorrect sentiments of the sacred historian ? 11. Doubts regarding any 
particular books ? 12. What facts would remain undisturbed ? 13. What result 
sometimes appears from free investigation ? 14. What disposition appears in 
some writers ? 15. What passages, among others, contradict such representa- 
tions ? 10. What is said of the sacrifice of Isaac ? 17. What is Mr. Parker's 
tribute to the Hebrew system ? 

Section XXVIII. — 1. By what kinds of evidence is the Old Testament 
sustained ? 2. Of external evidence, what is the testimony of the Jewish 
nation ? 3. What is said of the care with which the books have been pre- 
served ? 4. What do the Christian Scriptures prove, if regarded merely as 
ancient works ? 5. What is said of Josephus ? G. What of Philo ? 7. What 
of the Apocryphal books ? 8. The Samaritans ? 9. What of the Samaritan 
Pentateuch ? 10. What renders their testimony the more valuable ? 11. What 
other sources of evidence are mentioned ? 12. Name some of the heathen 
writers who ascribe the Jewish laws to Moses ? 13. When did Heeataeus and 
Manetho live? 14. What of Longinus? 15. What ancient Hindoo poem is 
mentioned ? 1G. Give an account of the quotation from it. 17. What similar 
account is given, and by whom ? 18. What of the records of Berosus and 
Manetho ? 19. What is related by Moses of Chorene and others ? 20. Who 
was Nicolaus, and what testimony does he give? 21. How is the marriage of 
Ahab illustrated ? 22. What particulars in regard to Eithobalus agree with 
the characters of Jezebel and Athaliah ? 23. What coincidence is there in 
regard to two of the later Egyptian kings ? 24. By what monuments are 
events in sacred history illustrated ? 25. Conquest of Rehoboam by Shishak ? 
20. Kingdoms of Israel and Judah ? 27. Reign of Ben-hadad ? 28. Interven- 
tion of Tiglath Pileser ? 29. Altar of Ahaz ? 30. Subjugation of Hezeluah ? 
31. Captivity of Manasseh ? 32. So, or Sevech, king of Egypt ? 33. Why has 
the account of Belshazzar appeared contrary to history ? 34. How is this 
explained by a recent discovery ? 35. In what does the internal evidence of tbe 
Old Testament consist? 3G. What does the history in Exodus exhibit?. 
37. How is this exemplified in the passage of the Red Sea ? 33. What two 
accounts corroborate each other ? 39. What other books coincide frequently 



144 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 

with the historical? 40. What of the argument from institutions? 41. What 
is the great evidence to us for the Old Testament ? 42. What is said of ques- 
tions of Old Testament criticism ? 

Section XSIX.-l. From what is an important branch of Christian 
evidence derived ? 2. What is said of the history of the Jews ? 3. Belief of 
other nations regarding the golden age ? 4. What of the Hebrew view ? 
5. What anticipation appears through the Jewish history? G. What of this 
anticipation at the Christian era? 7. From what writers do we learn this? 
8. What of this expectation among the Jews since that time ? 0. In what 
character did the Jews expect the Messiah to appear? 10. What is said 
oi' passages inconsistent with this idea ?' 11. What did some Jewish writers 
assert ? 12. What took place at the period when this expectation was strongest ? 
13. From whom is Jesus represented as descended? 14. What did lie call the 
community he established ? 15. How was the term justified? 10. How of the 
predictions of suffering ? 17. What objections are brought agaiust this being 
regarded as the fulfilment of the national expectation ? IS. What is essential 
to the character of prophecy ? 19. What were the reasons for the rejection of 
Jesus? 20. What answer had the Jews to the evidence of miracles ? 21. How 
does the chief reason of the Jews for rejecting Jesus appear to us ? 22. How 
does the station which they expected him to assume compare with his real one ? 
23. In what question did he suggest this thought ? 24. What is said of an un- 
inspired Jew entertaining this idea? 25. What rejection and choice would it 
imply ? 2(3. What would be the probability of his thus succeeding ? 27. In what 
station would the prophets naturally expect the Messiah to appear ? 2S. What 
appears, from some indications in the prophets, with regard to their predic- 
tions? 29. What might have taken place if the Jews had accepted Jesus? 
30. Why is the above argument independent of particular prophecies ? 31. State 
briefly what the argument is. 

Section XXX. — 1. What claims does the Jewish religion possess ? 
2. State some of the grounds of these claims. 3. What is there in contrast 
with these claims ? 4. In what respects does it show its national character ? 
5. Its purpose to keep the people apart from other nations ? 6. If the Jewish 
laws were of later date than Moses, what must still be true of them ? 7. If the 
account of the deliverance from Egypt were of later date, what must still be 
true respecting it ? 8. For what reason ? 9. What suppositions may be formed 
to account for the Jewish religion ? 10. What does the first supposition 
imply? 11. What respecting those who taught it? 12. Why cannot this be 
believed? 13. What contrast is pointed out between the Jewish nation and 
others, and what inference drawn ? 14. With what is the second supposition 
inconsistent ? 15. In what respects ? 16. What of the brotherhood of man- 
kind ? 17. What of the divine unity and care for all mankind ? 18. What do 
these limitations show ? 19. What fulfils this promise ? 20. How does it 
regard the Jewish religion ? 21. What difficulty would meet us without Chris- 
tianity? 22. What without Judaism ? 23. What is said of the period when the 
new light was given ? 24. What was the condition of the Jewish system ? 
25. What of heathen systems ? 23. What of the political changes in the East? 
27. Of those in the West ? 28. Final ascendency of the Romans ? 29. Heathen 
philosophy? 30. Close of the civil wars ? 31. Settlement of Jews in various 
places ? 32. What indications of divine providence do we recognize ? 33. What 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 145 

objection is named ? 34. now is this answered ? 35. How is this exemplified 
in the existence of Jewish communities ? 36. What question is suggested 
concerning the long delay of revelation ? 37. Of what do sacred and profane 
history give intimations ? 33. What was probably derived from this ? 39. How 
did this early knowledge become corrupted and weakened ? 40. What was sent 
to supply its place ? 

Section XXXI. — 1. Of what two descriptions are the Old Testament 
prophecies ? 2. To what do the instances given, of the first description, 
relate? 3. How is the fulfilment of these evident: 4. What are such predic- 
tions respecting Nineveh? 5. 3ioab? G. Philistia ? 7. Edom ? 8. When and 
how did the fulfilment of this prophecy appear? 9. Egypt? 10. Tyre? 
11. Babylon ? 12. What has been the disposition of some theologians ? 
13. What psalm is referred to in illustration ? 14. What is its title ? 15. Repeat 
some verses that are not applicable to any temporal prince. 1G. What has 
been the usual explanation ? 17. What is said of the prophetic insight into 
the future ? 18. What was known to the prophets ? 19. Under what char- 
acter did they conceive of him ? 20. What would they be led to hope in 
connection with the respective mouarchs of whom they wrote? 21. What 
prospects would become blended in their description ? 22. How is this exem- 
plified in Ps. ii. ? 23. In Ps. xlv. ? 24. In Ps. lxxii.? 25. In Is. vii. 14? 
2G. Perhaps in Dan. ix. ? 27. By what will this evidence not be materially 
affected? 28. Whatever the source of the prophets' foreknowledge, what will 
still remain? 29. What prophecy is given from Gen. xxii. 18? 30. How does 
this differ from the natural aspiration of a rude age? 31. What is said of the 
first words of Ps. xxii. ? 32. Repeat the other verses quoted. 33. What ren- 
ders the coincidence of verse lfi more remarkable ? 34. What is the language 
of Ps. ex. 4 ? 35. How is this explained, and where, in the New Testament ? 
3G. How is the objection answered that this psalm speaks of a conquering 
monarch ? 37. Repeat Is. ix. G. 38. What is said of the translation ? 39. What 
still does the passage indicate? 40. What is said Is. xlix. 5, G? 41. What 
remark is made upon it ? 42. What chapter is referred to ? 43. Where in the 
New Testament is the passage in Is. liii. referred to ? 44. Repeat the 5th, 
Gth, and 7th verses. 45. The 8th, 9th, and 10th, in the version of Dr. Noyes. 
4G. Repeat Mic. v. 2. 47. Where is this referred to in the New Testament ? 
4S. What is predicted in Hag. ii. 7, 9 ? 49. In Mai. hi. 1 ? 50. In Mai. iv. 5, G? 
51. How is this referred to in the New Testament? 52. How are the Old and 
New Testaments connected ? 

Section XXXII. — 1. What other proof is there from prophecy ? 2. To 
what do the most remarkable of the New Testament prophecies relate ? 
3. Where are these found at most length ? 4. Where else do they appear, in a 
striking form ? 5. What especial marks of genuineness do these passages 
bear ? 6. Quote the passages referred to. 7. What is said of their fulfilment ? 
8. Describe the Jewish rebellion, and its result. 9. What objection is named ? 

10. How is this answered by reference to the figurative language employed? 

11. How by comparison with the ancient prophets ? 12. How has the Old Tes- 
tament been seen to be prophetic of the New ? 13. Hoav do the life and death 
of Jesus imply the overthrow of the Jewish state ? 14. How long had that 
state existed ? 15. What had it survived ? 1G. What was its prospect of 
endurance ? 17. What were the character and power of the Roman dominion ? 

13 



146 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 

18. What treatment did Jesus and his claims receive ? 19. If he was the 
Messiah, what did this rejection of him render necessary ? 20. To what consid- 
erations was this clue ? 21. If the Jewish state had stood uninjured, what argu- 
ment would the fact have afforded ? 22, How did the rejection of Christ 
receive its punishment i. 23. How was this event regarded when it took place ? 

24. With what was the overthrow of the Jewish nation in accordance ? 

25. What is said of their attachment to their law ? 26. How only can they be 
considered as having incurred the threatened penalty ? 27. What prophecy in 
Deuteronomy is referred to.' 28. What reference is made to it in the New 
Testament? 29. What is said of the Jews since that time? 30. What is their 
continued existence ? 31. What is said of the Romans ? 32. Other Western 
nations of that period ? 33. Of the Greeks ? 34. Circumstances which threat- 
ened the destruction of the Jews? 35. Their present state? 36. What is said 
of predictions yet unfulfilled? 37. For what purpose, perhaps, are they pre- 
served ? 38. What are the passages referred to ? 

Section XXXIII. — 1. In how many aspects may the sufferings of the 
early Christians be regarded ? 2. How do they show the truth of the accounts 
given? 3. How the excellence of the religion? 4. What qualities did the 
martyrs display ? 5. Whose sufferings are first to be considered? 6. What 
confirms the account of these sufferings ? 7. What would the enemies of 
Jesus have done, if possible ? 8. What facts, then, are established ? 9. What 
do these show ? 10. If his claims had been false, what would have been his 
endeavor ? 11. What effect would an evil conscience have had ? 12. What is 
said of his last utterances, on this supposition? 13. How does such conduct 
compare with all we know respecting him ? 14. By whose sufferings, besides 
those of Jesus, is Christianity confirmed ? 15. In what manner ? 16. How 
illustrated in the resurrection of Jesus? 17. What might be presumed from 
the nature of the case? 18. How did they offend the Jews? 19. How the 
Gentiles? 20. What result would probably follow? 21. What instance is 
mentioned in Scripture of their enduring exile ? 22. Scourging ? 23. Impris- 
onment ? 24. Stoning? 25. The loss of life ? 26. What martyrdom is related 
by Josephus ? 27. When and how did this take place ? 28. What words in 
this account are doubtful ? 29. What appears, even if these words were subse- 
quently added ? 30. By what writer is the account confirmed? 31. W hen was 
Tacitus born? 32. What suspicion, does he tell us, fell upon Nero ? 33. Upon 
whom did he charge the crime, and with what motive ? 34. What account does 
Tacitus give of the Christians ? 35. What tortures were inflicted on them ? 
36. What is the account of Suetonius ? 37. What poets refer to the same occur- 
rences ? 38. To what torture do they particularly allude ? 39. What station 
did Pliny hold, and when ? 40. To whom did he write respecting the Chris- 
tians ? 41. What did he say of the spread of Christianity ? 42. What punish- 
ments had Pliny inflicted ? 43. What of informations ? 44. What had Pliny 
learned of the conduct of the Christians ? 45. What answer did he receive from 
the emperor ? 46. Which of the apostles are mentioned by Clement of Home 
as having suffered death ? 47. Of what other sufferers does he speak ? 48. From 
what letter is an extract given? 49. What tortures does it commemorate? 
50. Through what centuries did the persecutions continue ? 51. How did they 
sometimes occur ? 52. How more extensively ? 53. How many general perse- 
cutions have been enumerated ? 54. By what monuments are these statements 
confirmed ? 55. What are the catacombs ? 56. How many graves are they 



QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 147 

estimated to contain ? 57. What does this prove ? 58. "What marks of martyrdom 
occur on some of the monuments ? 59. What did the sufferings of these later 
victims prove? GO. What respecting the power of their religion? 61. What 
is said of their imitation of the Savior's prayer ? 62. What was the effect of 
their patience and piety ? 

Section XXXIV. — 1. To what has much attention been devoted ? 2. By 
wbat have disciples been generally won to Christianity ? 3. How has the 
efficacy of Christianity been proved, in the first place ? i. Why has it not 
done all that might be desired ? 5. What ancient evil custom has it abolished? 
6. What of licentiousness and sensuality? 7. What of war and despotism? 
8. What account can you give of slavery in ancient times ? 9. Of feudal slavery, 
and the influence of Christianity in destroying it ? (See Macaulay's History 
of England, Chap. I. Remarks on the extinction of villcnage.) 10. Of efforts 
for the removal of modern slavery, and their success ? 11. What valuable 
institutions has Christianity established? 12. What great Christian philan- 
thropists and reformers can you name ? 13. How is the efficacy of Christianity 
displayed in civilizing a rude neighborhood ? 14. How in reclaiming a reckless 
and dissolute man ? 15. How in giving comfort to the distressed ? 16. How in 
extending civilization ? 17. How can we perceive its influence within our- 
selves ? 18. Name the means through which Christianity influences us indi- 
rectly. 19. What is the most powerful evidence to the individual of the truth 
of Christianity ? 20. With what suggestion does the book conclude ? 



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